THEDHAMMAPADAWith Explanatory Notes Buddha’sand a Short Essay on
Buddha’s Thought

T H
E C U N N I N G H A M P R E S SALHAMBRA CALIFORNIA
1955

Contents

FOREWORD.............................................
iii

THE
DHAMMAPADA..............................1

NOTES........................................................99

SOME MODERN PERSPECTIVES
ON BUDDHA'S THOUGHT.............115

FOREWORD

AFTER 2500 years, the teachings of Gotama Buddha are being regarded as
“really quite modern,” It would perhaps be less presumptuous and more true to
say that the present growing-tips of Western psychology are now beginning to
touch "The Problem of Man" where Buddha laid gentle but firm hand so long ago.

Throughout the past fifty years, the relevance of perceptions to a “science
of soul” has become increasingly clear. This Indian sage, perhaps more than any
other who has ever lived, provided a meeting-ground for all extremes of
persuasion—gnostics and agnosticism, belief and the skepticism of caution,
appreciation of intuition, and devotion to logic. While the world of the mind is
still quivering from abrupt change—transition from too much other worldly
religion to too much physical science—a man who recognized, as parts of a larger
whole, the valid emphases of each, is a man whose thoughts are worth knowing
today.

In the Dhammapada, while Buddha both affirms and denies some things
with assurance, many verses also contain, in sequence, the converse of
what is first said. We find, therefore, that the sharp delineations

v

THE DHAMMAPADA

between
“good” and “evil” which characterize familiar religious forms, are supplanted by
the establishment of a number of subtle ethical dimensions—presented in the form
of “on the other hands” and “yes, buts.” Now, it is clearly this very quality
of the Buddha’s thought, at once rendering its precepts philosophically valuable
and psychologically sound, which arouses the admiration of Westerners.

A student once under Freud’s personal tutelage has reported that the “father
of psychoanalysis” named Buddha as the greatest psychologist of all time. In any
case, there are logical reasons for the favor Buddha has found among modern
psychotherapists. Four sentences from the last two pages of ‘The Downward
Course” in the Dhammapada provide sufficient explanation:
• . . A blade of kusa grass wrongly
handled cuts the hand; asceticism wrongly practised leads downward, to hell.
• . . They who feel shame when there is
no cause for shame [as well as] they who feel no shame when they ought to be
ashamed—both enter the downward path, following false doctrines.

• . . They who fear when there is no cause for fear [as
well as] they who do not fear when they ought to fear—both enter the downward
path, following false doctrines.

vi

FOREWORD

They who discern evil where there is no evil [as well as] they who see nothing
evil in what is evil—both enter the downward path, following false doctrines.

In this brief passage we may well feel that the essential key to Buddha’s
outlook stands revealed: To speak of those whose trouble arises from failing to
“discern evil” where there is evil—this is also the talk of church and temple.
To speak of those whose trouble arises from “discerning evil” where there is
no evil, who feel shame where there should be no shame—this is the language
of psychotherapy. Clinicians of our time are still encountering warped psyches
influenced by distorted conceptions of sin; Buddha had his ownbacklog of
priestly distortion to face, and his “point, counterpoint” method of
instruction, in perfect balance itself, encouraged balance in those who
listened. “Evil” is not to be feared, in other words, but understood,
which can in turn only be accomplished by penetrating beyond traditional
categories of Right and Wrong. Do we, today, really need anything more
desperately than to find a way of retaining ethical awareness while rejecting
categorical morality—and its accompanying self-righteousness?
The Dhammapada is one of the great books of the world. It ranks with
The Bhagavad-Gita, Tao Teh Ching and Verba Christie in the New
Testament.

vii

THE DHAMMAPADA

How
it is a recognized part of the Buddhistic Canon; when it was compiled; why it is
revered as containing authentic words of the Master—and other such scholastic
problems—need not be considered here. Those who are interested in such problems
will find full information in numerous volumes—from Max Müller’s “Introduction”
in Volume X of the Sacred Books of the East (1881) to Dr. S.
Radhakrishnan’s “Introductory Essays” to his Dhammapada (1950).

This is not a new translation. It is only a rendition. Over a score of
translations have been consulted in its compilation and of course our debt of
gratitude to them is large.

The present volume is especially meant for all those who aspire to brighten
their day to day living, and who are seeking for inspiration and enlightenment.
The Dhammapada can bestow this, gift: it has the power to bring to the
heart and the mind of earnest readers “the right perception of existing things,
the knowledge of the non-existent.” There are soothing and comforting and
encouraging verses in The Dhammapada; but, most of all, its sections
awaken the mind and energize the heart and take them to a better way of living.
It offers tonic for self-examination, nourishment for reflection and stimulant
for self-discipline. It raises consciousness from the sentient state to the

viii

FOREWORD

plane
of the Soul. There is peace born of insight, there is contentment born of
understanding, awaiting the student-devotee who follows the foot-falls of Master
Gotama Buddha.
THE
PUBLISHERS

ix

THE
DHAMMAPADACHAPTER ONE
THE TWIN VERSES

ALL
that we are is the result of what we have thought: all that we are is founded
on our thoughts and formed of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil
thought, pain pursues him, as the wheel of the wagon follows the hoof of the ox
that draws it.(1)*

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: all that we are is
founded on our thoughts and formed of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with
a pure thought happiness pursue him like his own shadow that never leaves him.
(2)*

“He reviled me, he beat me and conquered and then plundered me,” who
express such thoughts tie their mind with the intention of retaliation. In them
hatred will not cease. (3)

[I]

THE DHAMMAPADA

“He
reviled me, he beat me and conquered and then plundered me,” who do not express
such thoughts, in them hatred will cease. (4)

In this world never is enmity appeased by hatred; enmity is ever appeased
by Love. This is the Law Eternal.* (5)
The many who know not this also forget that in this world we shall one day
die. They do not restrain themselves. But those who recognize the Law end their
quarrels soon. (6)

Whoso lives pursuing pleasures, his senses unrestrained, immoderate in
eating, indolent, devitalized—him verily doth Mara uproot as a gale a weak tree.
(7)
Who so lives disciplining himself, unmindful of pleasures, his senses
restrained, moderate in eating, full of faith and dauntless energy (Virya)—him
verily Mara doth not overturn as a gale doth not overturn a rocky mountain.
(8) *

[2]

THE TWIN VERSES

He
may display it on himself but he has not merited the yellow robe who is not free
from depravities, who disregards temperance and truth. (9)
He indeed has merited the yellow robe who has purged away depravities and is
well grounded in virtues, who is regardful of temperance and truth. (10)

Those who live in the pleasure-ground of fancy see truth in the unreal and
untruth in the real. They never arrive at truth.(11)

Those who abide in the world of right thought see truth in the real and
untruth in the unreal. They arrive at truth.(12)

Rains pour into an ill-thatched house; desires pour into an ill-trained
mind. (13)

Rains wet not a well-thatched house; desires enter not the disciplined mind.
(14)

[3]

THE DHAMMAPADA

The
evil doer suffers in this world and he grieves in the next; he mourns in both.
Afflicted he grieves in the visualization of his sinful deeds. (15)

The virtuous rejoices in this world and he rejoices in the next; he rejoices
in both. He rejoices, rejoices exceedingly in the visualization of his pure
deeds.(16)

The evil doer laments here, he laments hereafter. “Evil have I done,” he
soliloquizes. Greater his torment when he is in the place of evil. (17)

The
righteous man is happy here, he is happy hereafter. “I have done well,” he
soliloquizes. Greater is his delight in the blissful place. (18)

He who quotes the Sacred texts but is lazy and will not apply, he is like a
cowherd count-

[4]

THE DHAMMAPADA

ing the
cows of others. He shares not the blessings of the Good Life. (19)

He who forsakes lust, hatred and folly is possessed of true knowledge and a
serene mind, craves nought of this world or of any other, applies to himself the
teachings of the Sacred texts he recites, even though a few in number—such a one
shares in the blessings of the Good Life.(20)

[5]

CHAPTER TWO

VIGILANCE *

1.
Vigilance is the path to Life Eternal. Thoughtlessness is the path to death.
The reflecting vigilant die not. The heedless are already dead.(21)

2. The wise distinctly understand this. Therefore they delight in
wakeful watching. They graze in the pastures of the Aryas, the Noble Ones.(22)
3. Meditative, persevering, ever
strenuous in endeavour, the tranquil ones attain Nirvana, the highest freedom
and happiness. (23)

4. Continually grows the glory of that man who is wakeful and mindful, whose
deeds are pure, whose acts are deliberate, who is self-controlled and who lives
according to Law.(24)

5. By endeavour, by vigilance, by discipline and self-control, let the wise
man make for himself an island which no flood can overwhelm. (25)

[6]

VIGILANCE

6.
Fools and witless persons give themselves to sloth. The wise value vigilance as
their best treasure. (26)
7. Be not a sluggard. Have no dalliance with lust and sense delights. He who
meditates with earnestness attains great joy. (27)
8. When the prudent man overcomes sloth by vigilance he ascends to the
terrace of wisdom. Sorrowless he surveys the sorrowful crowd. This wise man
regards the foolish as the mountaineer from his high peak looks at those who are
dwelling on the plains.(28)

9. Vigilant among the heedless, awake among the sleepy, the wise one forges
ahead even as a charger outdistances a weak horse. (29)

10. By vigilance did Indra rise to the lordship of the gods. Vigilance
is always praised, heedlessness ever deprecated.(30)

[7]

THE DHAMMAPADA

11.
A Bhikkhu who delights in vigilance, who sees the danger of heedlessness,
advances like a lire consuming fetters, small or large. (31)

12.A Bhikkhu who delights in vigilance, who sees the danger of
heedlessness, will not fall; he is close upon Nirvana. (32)

[8]

CHAPTER THREE

MIND*

1.
Just as a fletcher makes straight his arrow, the wise man makes straight his
crooked thinking. This is difficult to guard. This is hard to restrain.
(33)

2. Like unto a fish snatched from its
watery home and cast on land, the mind trembles and quivers leaving the
dominion of Mara. (34)
3. Thinking is difficult to discipline. Mind is flighty, alighting where it
listeth. Good is to tame it. The tame mind is the bearer of happiness (35)

4. Let a wise man watch his thinking. The mind moves with extreme subtlety
and is not noticed. It seizes whatever it desires. To watch the mind is
conducive to happiness. (36)
5. He who controls his mind escapes the
bondage of Mara. The mind is incorporeal, moves alone, travels far and rests in
the cave of the heart. (37)

6. Wisdom fills not the unsteady mind of

[9]

THE DHAMMAPADA

the man
of ruffled serenity; he is ignorant of the true teaching. (38)
7. Fear there is not for him whose mind
is not burning with desires, and which, having risen above likes and dislikes,
is serene. He is awakened.
(39)
8. Looking upon his body to be fragile as an earthen jar, valuing his mind
as a firm fortress, let a man fight Mara with the sword of wisdom. Let him guard
what he has gained, but let him fight on. (40)

10. Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy, whatever a hater may do to a
hater, a wrongly directed mind will do to us greater harm.
(42)11. Not a mother, not a father, not any kindred can do much; a
well-directed mind does us greater service. (43)

[10]

CHAPTER FOUR

FLOWERS

1.
Who shall overcome this earth? And who the sphere of Yama, the god of death? And
who the world of the happy gods? And who shall choose the steps on the Path of
Law even as the gardener culls the choicest blooms? (44)2. The disciple will overcome this earth. Also Yamaloka. Also the sphere
of the gods. The disciple chooses to take steps on the Path of Law. He is the
expert gardener who culls the choicest blooms. (45) *

3. Knowing that this body is like froth, knowing that its nature is that of a
mirage, and breaking the flowery shafts of Mara, the disciple passes untouched
by death. (46)

4. Death bears off the man whose mind is intent on plucking the flowers of
sense, as a flood sweeps away a sleeping hamlet. (47)

[11]

THE DHAMMAPADA

5. Death overpowers the man who is gathering the
flowers of sense, even before he is satiated in his pleasure. (48)

6. The bee gathers honey without injuring the scent or the colour of the
flower. So should a silent one (Muni) live his life.(49)
7.Not the unworthy actions of others, nor their sins
of omission and commission, but his own acts of omission and commission should
one regard.(50)

8.
Like a flower full of colour but without fragrance are the fair words which bear
no fruit in action. (51)

9.
But like a beautiful flower full of colour and fragrance are the fair words
whose fruits
are deeds. (52)

10.
Many kinds of garlands can be made From a heap of flowers. Many good
works can be gathered by a mortal once he is born. (53)

[12]

FLOWERS

11.
The scent of flowers travels not against the wind—be it tagara or mallika or
even of the sandalwood tree. But the fragrance of the good wafts even against
the wind. But the fragrance of the good man pervades all his ways. (54)

12.
The fragrance of virtue is unsurpassed even among the perfumes of sandalwood,
of but lotus, of tagara, of vassiki.(55)

13.Faint is the scent of tagara or sandalwood. The fragrance of the
virtuous ascends to the heights of the gods. (56)

14. Mara never finds the way to those who possess real virtue, who are
vigilant, who are freed by perfect knowledge. (57)

15-16. From a heap of rubbish on the road-side, a lily blooms, fragrant and
pleasing; from a mass of blinded mortals arises the disciple of the truly Wise
One, shining with exceeding glory of his own Wisdom. (58-59)

[13]

CHAPTER FIVE

THE
FOOL

1.
Long is the night for him who cannot sleep. Long is the yojana (a ten mile
distance) for him who is weary. Long the chain of birth and death for the
foolish who do not know the true law.60)2. If a wayfarer does not meet his better or his equal, let him
resolutely proceed alone on his journey. There is no companionship with a fool.
(61)

3. The fool worries himself thinking— “Sons have I; wealth have I.” He
himself does not belong to himself. How then sons? How then wealth?(62)
4. The fool aware of his folly is to that extent wise; but a fool who takes
himself to be wise is a fool indeed. (63)
5. A fool associating himself with a
wise man all his life sees not the truth, even as the spoon enjoys not the taste
of the soup.(64)

[14]

THE FOOL

6.
But a thoughtful person associating with a wise man soon perceives the truth,
even as the tongue enjoys the taste of the soup. (65)
7. Fools of little understanding are
their own enemies; they do evil deeds which bear
bitter fruits. (66)

8. Ill done is that deed for which repentance is due; in grief and with
tears a man receives its consequences. (67)

9. Well done is that deed for which no repentance is
due; in delight and happiness a man receives its consequences. (68)

10. So long as an evil deed does not bear fruit, the fool thinks that it is
sweet as honey; but when it bears fruit, then the fool suffers (69)11.Though a fool may eat his food month after month with the tip
of a blade of kusa grass, yet will he not be worth the sixteenth part of those
who have truly appraised the doctrine. (70)

[15]

THE DHAMMAPADA

12.An evil deed, like newly drawn milk, does not turn at once. Smouldering,
like fire covered by ashes, it consumes the fool. (71)

13. Whatever knowledge the fool acquires is not worked to advantage.
That tarnishes his bright share of past merit and throws his head into disarray
as he acts in the present. (72)

14-15. Let the fool wish for false reputation, for precedence among the
mendicants, for lordship in convents and worship from all folk. “Let both the
householders and the monks think that this is done by me. Let them follow my
pleasure in what should be done and what should not be done.” Such is the wish
of the fool and so his desire and pride increase. (73-74)
16. One is the way that leads to worldly gain; quite another leads to
Nirvana. Let not the Bhikkhu, the follower of the Buddha, having learnt this,
seek mundane praise but strive after wisdom. (75)

[16]

CHAPTER SIX

THE
WISE MAN

1-2. Ifyou see an intelligent man who detects faults and blames what
is blameworthy, follow that wise man. Value him as a revealer of hidden
treasure. He will be beloved of the good; by the bad he will be hated. Let such
a man admonish, let him instruct, let him forbid what is improper. (76-77)
3. Do not be friends of evil doers or of
mean men. Do be friends with the good; keep
company with the best of men. (78)

4. He who drinks in the Dhamma with a serene mind lives happily. The wise
man delights in the Dhamma taught by the Noble Ones. (79)

6.
Solid rock is not shaken by the gale. The wise man is not moved by praise or
blame. (81)

7. After hearing the Dhamma the wise become tranquil, like a deep lake which
is clear and calm. (82)
8. Good people move onwards whatever befall. They do not prattle, nor yearn
for pleasures. The wise are not elated in their happiness, nor are they
depressed when touched by sorrow.(83)

9. Neither for himself nor for others will the wise man crave sons or wealth
or position. (84)

10-11. A few only reach the farther shore. Most people go their rounds on
this one. Those, however, who listen to the Law and live up to its precepts
cross over to the farther shore. This crossing over the dominion of Mara is
difficult (85-86)

[18]

THE WISE MAN

12-13. Let a man value retirement which is hard to love; let him leave the
householder-state, seeking the homeless one. Let the wise abandon the way of
darkness and follow the light on the path. Leaving behind all sense pleasures,
calling nothing his own, let the wise man cleanse himself from all impurities of
the heart and then enjoy. (87-88)14. Living in this world they attain the bliss of Nirvana whose
appetites have been conquered, whose minds are well grounded in the elements of
enlightenment* and who cling to nothing but enjoy the freedom of detachment.
(89)*

[19]

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE SAGE

1. He who has thrown off the fetters and freed himself in all ways, he is
free from sorrow; for him there is no suffering; he has completed his journey.
(90)

2. The thoughtful exert themselves. They do not delight in any abode.
They leave their house and home as swans their lake.(91)
3. Those who have no possessions, who
nourish themselves according to knowledge and who realize the goal of freedom by
perceiving that life is empty and transient, their path is hard to trace like
the flight of birds through the sky.(92)

4. He whose appetites are slain and who is indifferent to food, who has
perceived the goal of freedom by realizing that life is empty and transient, his
path is hard to trace like the flight of birds through the sky. (93)

[20]

THE SAGE

5.
Even the gods envy him whose senses are subdued like the horses well tamed by
the charioteer, who is free from pride and free from depravities. (94)

6. He who is patient like the earth, firm like Indra’s bolt, like a lake
free from mud—for him there is no round of births and deaths. (95)
7. Calm in thought, calm in speech, calm
in actions is he who has obtained freedom through true knowledge. He has become
tranquil. He is full of repose. (96)
8. The man who is not credulous, who has
severed all ties, killed all desires, for whom even occasions to act with like
or dislike arise not, who knows the ever-existing uncreate, he indeed is exalted
among men. (97)
9. Delightful is the place where Arhats dwell, be it a village or a forest,
be it by deep waters or by desert-edge. (98)

[21]

THE DHAMMAPADA

10.
Delightful are the forests to the Arhat; they charm not the worldly. There the
passionless find delight, for they are not allured by sense-life.(99)

[22]

CHAPTER EIGHT

T H E T H 0 U S A N DS

1.
Better than a thousand-word speech of empty words is one pregnant sentence
hearing which one feels peace. (100)

2. Better than a thousand-verse poem of empty sounds is one stanza hearing
which one feels peace. (101)

3. Better than reciting a hundred verses of empty words is the repeating of
a single stanza hearing which one feels peace. (102)

4. Better than a man who conquers in battles a thousand times a thousand men
is he who conquers himself. He indeed is the mightiest of warriors.(103)

5-6. Conquest of self is indeed better than the conquest of others. Neither
a deva (god) nor a gandharva (celestial musician), neither

[23]

THE DHAMMAPADA

Brahma
nor Mara could turn into defeat the victory of one who always practices
self-control. (104-105)
7. Better than a man who offers, month
after month for a hundred years, a thousand sacrifices is that man who pays
homage to one grounded in wisdom. Superior is that homage to a century of formal
sacrifices (106)

8. Better than a man who tends the sacred fire in the forest for a hundred
years is that man who pays homage to one grounded in wisdom. Superior is that
homage to a century of formal sacrifices. (107)

9. Better than a man who offers an oblation and a sacrifice for a whole year
in order to gain merit is that man who pays homage to the righteous. The whole
of the former is not worth a quarter of the latter. (108)

[24]

THE THOUSANDS

10.
Four blessings to the man who respects the elders and practises reverence—length
of days, beauty, happiness and strength. (109)

11. Better than an unrestrained life of a hundred years of wickedness is
the short life of a single day of the virtuous man who meditates. (110)

12.Better than an unrestrained life of a hundred years of ignorance
is the short life of a single day of the wise man who meditates. (111)

13. Better than an idle and a weak life of a hundred years is the short life
of a single day of the man who strenuously endeavors. (112)

14.Better than the life of a hundred years of the man who
perceiveth not the origin and end of things is the short life of a single day of
the man who perceiveth the origin and end of things. (113)

[25]

THE DHAMMAPADA

15. Better than the life of a hundred years of the man who perceiveth not
the deathless state is the short life of a single day of the man who senses that
deathless state.(114)

16. Better than the life of a hundred years of the man who perceiveth not
the highest law is the short life of a single day of the man who perceiveth the
most excellent doctrine.(115)

[26]

CHAPTER NINE

E V I
L C 0 N D U C T

1.
A man should hasten towards the good; he should restrain his evil thoughts; if
he is slack in doing good his mind inclines to delight in evil.(116)

2.
If a man commits sin, let him not continue in it. Let him not set his heart on
it. Painful is the accumulation of evil conduct. (117)
3. If a man does what is good, let him
do it again and again. Let him set his heart on it. Happiness is the outcome of
good conduct.(118)

4. Even an evil doer sees happiness as long as his evil deed has not
ripened; but when his evil deed has ripened, then does the evil doer perceive
the evil.(119)

5. Even a good man, mayhap, suffers evil so long as his good deeds do not
ripen; but when

[27]

THE DHAMMAPADA

his
good deeds ripen, then he perceives the good accruing to him.(120)

6. Think not lightly of evil, saying, “it will not come unto me.” Even a
water-pot is filled by the constant falling of drops of water. A fool becomes
full of evil if he gathers it little by little. (121)

7. Think not lightly of good, saying, “it will not come unto me.” Even a
water-pot is filled by the constant falling of drops of water. A wise man
becomes full of goodness even if he gathers it little by little. (122)

8. As a merchant ill-attended and having much wealth avoids a dangerous way;
as a man who loves to live on avoids poison; so should one shun evil. (123)

9. He whose hand has no wound may touch poison. Poison harms not one who has
no wound. No evil is to him who does no evil.(124)

[28]

E V I L C 0 N D U C T

10.
Whoever wrongs an innocent person, or a pure and sinless one, evil recoils on
that fool, even as fine dust thrown against the wind recoils on the person
throwing it. (125)

11. Some men return, entering the womb; evil doers experience hell; the
good experience heaven; those who have freed themselves from worldly desires
attain Nirvana. (126)

12. Not in the sky, nor in the depths of the sea, nor in mountain clefts
is there a place on earth where a man can be to escape the consequences of his
evil deed. (127)

13. Not in the sky, nor in the depths of the sea, nor in mountain clefts
is there a place on earth where a man can be and death cannot overcome him.
(128)

[29]

CHAPTER TEN

THE
ROD OF PUNISHMENT

1.
Allmen tremble at the rod, all men fear death. Putting oneself in the
place of another, one should neither slay nor cause to slay. (129)

2. All men tremble at the rod; to all men life is dear. Putting oneself
in the place of another, one should neither slay nor cause to slay. (130)

3. He who seeking his own happiness uses on others the rod of punishment
because they seek their own happiness, will not find happiness after death.
(131)

4. He who seeking his own happiness uses not the rod of punishment on others
though they seek their own happiness, will find happiness after death. (132)

5. Speak not harshly to any one; those thus spoken to will retaliate. Since
angry talk is painful, the rod of retaliation may overtake you. (133)

[30]

THE ROD OF PUNISHMENT

6.
If you make yourself still like a broken gong, you have already reached Nirvana,
for anger is not in you.(134)
7. As a cowherd with his staff drives
the cows into pasture-fields, so old age and death drive men to new living.
(135)
8. The fool in doing ill knows not his
folly. His own deeds, like a fire, consume the fool. (136)

9. He who offends the harmless and the innocent soon reaches one of
these ten states: (137)
10-12. He will suffer (1) sharp pain, or (2)disease or (3) bodily
decay or (4) grievous disaster or (5) loss of mind or (6) displeasure of the king or (7)
calumny or (8) loss of relations or (9) loss of all his wealth or (10) destruction of his
house by lightning or fire. At death, poor fool, he finds rebirth in woe.
(138-140)

[31]

THE DHAMMAPADA

13.
Not nakedness, nor matted hair, nor filth,
nor lying on the ground, besmearing the body with dust and ashes, nor posture
squatting can cleanse the mortal who is full of doubt. (141)

14.
But he who is tranquil and serene and calm and lives a tamed and restrained life
of holiness and has ceased to injure living things, though richly attired, he is
a Brahmana, an ascetic (Samana) and a monk (Bhikkhu). (142)

15.Is there in this world any man modest enough, humble enough, that he minds
not reproof, as a thoroughbred horse is not stung when touched by a whip? (143)

16. Like a thoroughbred horse, touched by a whip, let a man be ardent and
active. By faith and virtue, energy and mind, by discernment of the Law, endowed
with knowledge, good be-

[32]

THE ROD OF PUNISHMENT

haviour,
concentrated, he will strike off the nor fasting nor great sorrow of earthly
existence.

17.Irrigators lead the water; fletchers make the arrows straight;
carpenters carve the wood; good people discipline themselves. (145)

(33)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

1. Why this
laughter, why this jubilation, virtue of the good never ages. Thus the saintly
when this world is burning, burning? Shrouded in darkness why do you not seek
for light? (146)

2. Behold this painted image, this body full of sores, stuck together,
sickly, and full of many thoughts devoid of permanence and stability. (147)

3. This body is wearing out; it is a nest of diseases; it is frail. This
heap of corruption is breaking to pieces. Life ends in death. (148)

4. What pleasure is there in looking at But now, these bleached bones, like
gourds cast away in the autumn? (149)

5. Of these bones a citadel is made, plastered over with flesh and blood;
therein lurk pride and deceit, decay and death.(150)

[34]

OLD AGE

6.
The splendid chariots of kings wear away; the body also comes to old age; but
the teach each other. (151)

7. A man who has learnt but little grows old like an
ox; his flesh increases, but his knowledge does not grow. (152)

8-9. Many a House of life Hath held me—seeking ever him who wrought These
prisons of the senses, sorrow-fraught; Sore was my ceaseless strife! Thou
Builder of this Tabernacle—Thou!

I know Thee! Never shalt Thou build again These walls of pain, Nor raise
the roof-tree of deceits, nor lay Fresh rafters on the clay;

10. Men who have not lived the disciplined life of a chaste mind, who
have not gathered soul wealth in young age, pine away like old cranes in a lake
without fish. (155)

11. Men who have not lived the disciplined life of a chaste mind,
who have not gathered soul wealth in young age, lie like worn-out bows, sighing
after the past. (156)————————
† Closing of the Sixth Book of Arnold’s Light of Asia.

[36]

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE SELF

1.
If a man holds himself dear, let him diligently watch himself. The wise man
should keep vigil during one of the three watches. (157)

2.Let each man first establish himself in the way he should go and
then let him teach others. Thus, the wise man will not suffer. (158)

3. Let each man shape himself, ere he teaches others. Subduing himself well
he might indeed subdue others. Very difficult is the subduing of the self. (159)

4. The Self is the Lord of self; what higher Lord could there be? When a
man subdues well his self, he will find a Lord very difficult to find. (160)

5. The evil done by oneself, born of oneself, produced by oneself, crushes
the fool even as the diamond breaks a hard precious stone. (161)

[37)

THE DHAMMAPADA

6.
Maluva creeper entwines a sala tree; just so, he of evil nature; his impiety
reduces himself to the state his enemy wishes for him. (162)

7. Easy it is to do evil; deeds which are harmful to oneself come easy.
Exceedingly hard it is to do that which is beneficial and good. (163)

8.The foolish man reviles the teachings of the holy ones, the noble
and the virtuous; he follows false doctrines which bear fruit to his own
destruction, even like the fruit of the Katthaka reed. (164)

9.
Evil is done by self alone; by self alone is one defiled. By self alone is evil
left undone; by self alone is one purified. Purity and impurity belong to
oneself. No man can purify an other. (165)

10. Let no one neglect his own good work for the sake of another’s
however great. Once

[38]

THE SELF

a man
has discerned his own work let him devote himself to it.† (166)
————————† This sounds like selfishness; what is implied is that
one cannot do good without self-culture—Atmartha.

[ 39]

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE WORLD

1. Do not follow the law of evil. Do not live
heedlessly. Do not follow the false doctrine. Do not befriend the ways of the
worldly. (167)

2. Be watchful. Be not heedless. Follow the Law of Virtue. The
virtuous live happily in this world now and also in the hereafter. (168)

3. Follow the Law of Virtue. Do not follow the law of sin. The virtuous live
happily in this world now and also in the hereafter. (169)
4. Look upon the world as a bubble. Look
upon it as a mirage. Death looks not at him who looks upon the world thus. (170)

5. Come, look at this world; it is like a painted, ornate royal chariot. The
foolish are sunk in it; the discerning are not glamoured by it. (171)

[40]

THE WORLD

6.
He who was heedless but who now is restrained and reflective is like the moon
freed from a cloud; he brightens the world. (172)

7. He who by his good deeds transforms his evil acts is like the moon
when freed from a cloud. (173)

8. This world is wrapt in darkness. Only a few can see here. Only a few
birds escape the net. Only a few escape into the heavenly light. (174)

9. The swans take the path of the sun because of their supernormal powers.
So do the wise; having conquered Mara and his hosts they leave the world. (175)

10. There is no evil the man will not do who violates the good law, who
speaks falsely, who scoffs at the existence of another world. (176)11. Verily the niggardly do not know heavenly bounty. Fools do not
appreciate generosity.

[41]

THE DHAMMAPADA

But
the wise, rejoicing in charity, enjoy that world. (177)

12.To enter the Sotapatti * stream is better is His than world
sovereignty, is better than going to victory nought can undo. None of this world
heaven, is better than lordship over many worlds, can touch that victory. He is
a Seer of limitless (178)

[42]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

T H
E E N L I G H T E N E D 0 N E S

1.By what track can you allure One who is enlightened? Trackless indeed is He.
His victory nought can undo. None of this world can touch that victory. He is a
Seer of limitless range.(179)

2.By what track can you allure One who is enlightened? Trackless indeed is He.
No net of desire can catch Him. No craving can entangle Him. He is a Seer of
limitless range. (180)

3. Even the Devas, Shining Gods, aspire to emulate the Enlightened Wise who
are great contemplators, who are the Peaceful Ones, who are steadfast and
tranquil. (181)
4. Difficult it is to obtain birth as a
human being. Difficult it is to live the life of a man. Difficult it is to get
to hear the True Law. Difficult it is to attain to Enlightenment. (182)

6. Enduring patience is the highest tapas; Nirvana is the supreme state—so
teach the Buddhas. He who oppresses another is no recluse; he who harms another
is no ascetic. (184)

7. Revile not, harm not, discipline thyself according to the Law, be
moderate in eating, dwell with solitude, be devoted to higher thought—such is
the teaching of the Buddhas. (185)

8. Lusts are never satisfied, not even by a shower of gold. He who knows
that enjoyment of passion is short-lived and also is the womb of pain is a wise
man. (186)

9. Even in celestial pleasures he finds no delight. The disciple of the
Supremely Enlightened delights in the destruction of craving. (187)

[44]

THE ENLIGHTENED ONES

10-11. Men driven by fear seek refuge on mountains, in forests, under sacred
trees or at shrines. Such refuge is not secure, such refuge is not the best.
Such refuge frees not a man from pain.(188-189)

12-14. He who takes refuge in the Enlightened One, in the Law, in the Order,
perceives clearly the four Noble Truths—suffering; the origin of suffering; the
cessation of suffering; and the Noble Eightfold Path, treading which all
suffering is transcended. That, verily, is the safe refuge, the best refuge; in
that refuge man is free from all pain. (190-192)

15. An exalted man is rare to find. Not anywhere is he born. Wherever a wise
and noble one is born, that household prospers. (193)

16. Blessed is the birth of the Buddha; blessed is the teaching of the
Good Law; blessed is concord in the Order; blessed is the austerity of those who
live in concord. (194)

[45]

THE DHAMMAPADA

17-18.
He who pays homage to those who are worthy of homage, be they the
Enlightened Ones or Their Disciples—those who have overcome the host of evil and
crossed beyond the stream of sorrow—he who pays homage to the Fearless and
Peaceful Ones, his merit cannot be measured by any. (195-196)

[46]

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

HAPPINESS

1.Let us, then, free from hate, live happily among those who hate; among men
who hate let us dwell free from hate. (197)2.Let us, then, free from the disease of longing, live happily
among those who suffer that disease; among men with disease of longing let us
dwell free from that disease. (198)

3. Let us, then, free from anxiety, live happily among those who are
careworn; among the anxious, let us dwell free from anxiety. (199)

4. Let us, then, live happily, we who possess nothing. Let us live like
the Shining
Ones nourished on joy. (200)

6.
There is no fire like lust; no ill like hatred; there is no sorrow like personal
existence*; there is no peace higher than tranquility. (202)

7. Hunger* is the worst of diseases, personal existence* the worst of
sufferings. To him who has known this truly, Nirvana is the highest bliss. (203)
*

8. Health is the greatest of gifts; contentment is the greatest wealth;
trust is the best of relationships; Nirvana is the highest happiness. (204)*

9. He who has tasted the sweetness of solitude and the flavour of
tranquility, he becomes free from sin and fearless, and enjoys the ambrosia of
the Good Law. (205)

10. Beneficent it is to catch sight of the Noble Ones; to live with them is
continuous happiness. A man is happy if luckily he escapes the sight of fools.
(206)

[48]

HAPPINESS

11.
He who consorts with fools experiences great grief. The company of fools is like
company of enemies—productive of pain. Company of the wise is like meeting of
real kinsfolk—it brings happiness. (207)

12. Therefore, even as the Moon follows its path among the stars, so should
one follow the wise, the discerning, the learned, the steadfast one, the
dutiful, the noble. One should follow such. (208)

[49]

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE PLEASANT

1. He who gives himself to unbecoming distractions and not to fitting
reflection, gives up his own welfare; going after pleasures, he envies the man
who exerts himself in meditation. (209)

2. Cling not to the pleasant, nor to the unpleasant. Not seeing the pleasant
as to see the unpleasant—both are painful. (210)
3. Therefore do not be attracted to
anything, for loss of a loved object is painful. No fetters exist for him who
neither likes nor dis likes (211)

4. From attachment arises grief; from attachment arises fear. There is no
grief for one who is free from attachment. Whence, then, can there come fear?
(212)

5. From affection arises grief; from affection arises fear. There is no
grief for one who

[50]

THE PLEASANT

is free from affection. Whence,
then, can there come fear? (213)

6. From indulgence arises grief; from indulgence arises fear. There is no
grief for one who is free from indulgence. Whence, then, can there come fear?
(214)

7. From desire arises grief; from desire arises fear. There is no grief for
one who is free from desire. Whence, then, can there come fear? (215)

8. From craving arises grief; from craving arises fear. There is no grief
for one who is free from craving. Whence, then, can there come fear? (216)
9. All people hold him dear who has both virtue and insight, who is
established in the Law, who is truthful, and fulfills his own Karma. (217)

10. He in whom the desire for the Ineffable has arisen, whose mind is
permeated by that de-

[51]

THE DHAMMAPADA

sire,
whose thoughts are not distracted by lower desires, he is named “Bound
up-stream.” (218)*

11-12. When a man, who has been long away, returns safe from afar and
receives a welcome from kinsmen, friends and well-wishers; even so his own good
deeds welcome him who leaves the worldly state and attains a higher plane;
indeed his good deeds are his kinsmen. (219-220)

[52]

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ANGER

1.
Let a man forsake anger; let him root out pride; let him break all fetters. No
sufferings befall him who clings not to name and form and who calls nothing his
own. (221)

2. He who curbs his rising anger which like a chariot out of track rolls on,
him I call a real charioteer; others but hold the reins. (222)

3. Let a man overcome anger by gentleness; let him overcome evil by good;
let him overcome the niggard by liberality; let him overcome the liar by truth.
(223)
4. Speak the truth; yield not to anger;
if asked give even a little. By these three steps a man reaches the presence of
the gods. (224)
5. The sages who injure none, and who
always control their body attain the changeless
state; therein is no grief. (225)

[53]

THE DHAMMAPADA

6.
All taints disappear when a man is vigilant, studious day and night, and Strives
after
Nirvana. (226)

7. This is an old saying, 0 Atula; it is not of this day only. ‘They blame
him who sits silent, they blame him who talks much, they blame him who speaks
moderately in measured terms.” There is not any one in the world who is not
blamed. (227)

8. There never was, nor will be, nor is there now to be found any one who
stands wholly praised or utterly condemned. (228)

9-10. But the man whom the discerning always praise, because he is without
blemish, wise, endowed with both knowledge and virtue, who would dare to blame
such an one? He is like a coin of gold from the Jambu river. Even the gods
praise him, even by Brahma he is praised. (229-230)

[54]

ANGER

11.
Let a man be watchful of bodily irritation. Let him control his body. Abandoning
the sins of the body let him dwell therein practising virtue. (231)

12. Let a man be watchful of speech-irritation. Let him control his speech.
Abandoning the sins of speech let him practise virtue with his speech. (232)
13. Let a man be watchful of
mind-irritation. Let him control his mind. Abandoning the sins of the mind let
him practise virtue with his mind. (233)

14. Well controlled indeed are the wise; they have mastery over body, tongue
and mind. (234)

[55]

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

IMPURITY

1.
Lo! you are now like a withered leaf. The messengers of Yama (Death) are fast
approaching you. You stand on the threshold of departure. And you have made no
provision for the journey. (235)

2. Be wise. Make for yourself an island. Strive quickly. Purged of stains
and sinless you will be ready for heaven, the world of the elect. (236)

3. Your life has now drawn to a close. You are approaching the King of
Death, Yama. There is no rest-house on the way. And you have made no provision
for the journey. (237)

4. Be wise. Make for yourself an island. Strive quickly. Purged of stains
and sinless you will not return to birth and decay. (238)
5. Let a wise man remove his impurities,
one by one, little by little, day by day, as a smith removes the impurities of
silver. (239

[56]

IMPURITY

6.
As the rust sprung from iron itself corrodes and eats into it, so with the man
who sins. His own deeds bring the sinner to an evil end. (240)
7. Non-repetition taints our prayers.
Non-repair taints the house. Sloth taints our body. Heedlessness taints the
watchman. (241)

8. Unchastity taints a woman. Niggardliness taints a benefactor. Evil deeds
taint us in this world and the next. (242)

9. But there is a taint worse than all taints—ignorance is the worst taint.
0 Bhikkhus, remove that taint and so become taintless. (243)

10. Easily lives one who is shameless, bold after the fashion of a crow, and
is a mischiefmaker, a slanderer, is arrogant and corrupt. (244)

11. Hard is the life to live for one who is modest, who always seeks
for what is pure,

[57]

THE DHAMMAPADA

who is
disinterested, unassuming, chaste and has insight. (245)
12-13. He who destroys life, who speaks
untruth, who, in this world, takes what is not given to him, who consorts with
another man’s wife, who is addicted to intoxicating drinks—he, even in this
world, digs up the very root of his own life. (246-247)

14. Know this, 0 man, “Not easy of restraint are evil things.” Let not
greed and wrongdoing bring you to grief for a long time. (248)

15. Men give according to their faith or according to their pleasure.
Therefore, he who frets about food or drink given to others does not enjoy peace
of mind either by day or by night. (249)

16. But he in whom that feeling is destroyed, rooted out, he enjoys peace of
mind by day and by night. (250)

[58]

IMPURITY

17. There is no fire like passion; there is no
strangler like hate; there is no net like delusion; there is no torrent like
craving. (251)

18. Easy it is to see the faults of others; difficult it is to see our own.
One winnows others’ faults like chaff, but his own faults he hides even as a
cheat hides a losing throw. (252)
19. He who is given to finding faults in
others and is ever censorious increases his own weaknesses. Far indeed is he
from their destruction (253)

20. There is no path in the sky; there is no true monk outside the Order (Sangha);
mankind delights in worldliness; Buddhas are free from worldliness. (254)

21. There is no path in the sky; there is no true monk outside the Order;
nought survives in the phenomenal world; but the Buddhas are ever the same.
(255)

[59]

CHAPTER NINETEEN

ONE ESTABLISHED IN THE LAW

1.
A man is not righteous who carries out his purpose by force and arbitrarily. He
is wise who distinguishes both right and wrong. (256)

2. He is wise and righteous who guides others not by force and violence but
equitably. He is the guardian of the Law. (257)
3. A man is not a learned pandit simply
because he talks much. He is a real pandit who is tranquil, free from hatred,
free from fear. (258)
4. A man is not a pillar of the Law
because he talks much. He who even though he has heard little of the Law but
himself has discernment, who always considers the Law, he is the Pillar of the
Law, he is established in the Law. (259

[60]

ONE ESTABLISHED IN THE LAW

5. A man is not an elder simply because his hair is
gray. His age is ripe but he is to be known as “Old-in-vain.” (260)

6. He is called an elder in whom dwell truth, virtue, non-violence,
restraint, and control, and who is free from impurity and is wise. (261)

7-8. Not by mere talk, not by the beauty of the complexion does a man become
saintly when he is envious, greedy and wicked. He in whom these three are
destroyed, removed by the very root and who is free from guilt and is wise is to
be called saintly. (262-263)

9. No tonsure can make an ascetic of one who is undisciplined and given to
lying. How can one who is full of desire and greed be an ascetic? (264)

10. But he who overcomes sinful tendencies, be they small or large, he is
called an ascetic. He has quitted all evil. (265)

[61]

THE DHAMMAPADA

11-12. He is not a Bhikkhu because he carries the begging bowl. Nor even
because he adopts the whole law outwardly. But he who is above good and evil, is
chaste, who comports himself in the world with understanding, he, indeed is
called a Bhikkhu. (266-267)
13-14. He is not a Muni simply because he is silent; he may be foolish and
ignorant. He who weighs in the scale of understanding, accepting the good and
rejecting the evil, he is wise; for that reason he is wise. He who in silence
reflects in the inner and the outer, he is to be called a Muni. (268-269)
15. A man is not an Ariya, an elect nobleman, when he injures living
creatures. He is the true Ariya, an elect nobleman, who practises ahimsa,
non-violence. (270)

16-17. Not only by discipline of moral principles, nor only by resolutions
and vows; not

[62]

ONE
ESTABLISHED IN THE LAW

only by
much study, nor even by attainment in meditation, or in seclusion and solitude,
do I release myself from bondage unto Bliss. This is not attained by worldlings.
0 Bhikkhu, be not deceived in self-confidence as long as you have not reached
the extinction of desire. (271-272)

[63]

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE PATH

1. The best of Paths is the Eightfold Path; the best of Truths are the Four
Noble Ones; the best of states is that of Detachment (Viraga); the best
of men is the Seer. (272,)
2. This is the Path. No other leads to the pure vision. Enter ye this Path.
So shall ye confound Mara. (274)

3. Treading this Path you will end your suffering. It was shown by me as
soon as I learnt how the thorns in the flesh are to be removed (275)

4. You yourself must strive; Buddhas are but sign-posts. Those who enter the
Path and discipline themselves are released from the bondage of Mara. (276)

5. Impermanent are all conditioned beings.” He who knows this ceases to be
in the thrall of grief. This is the Path of Purity. (277)

[64]

THE PATH

6. “Full of pain are all
conditioned beings.” He who knows this ceases to be in the thrall of grief. This
is the Path of Purity. (278)
7. “Unsubstantial are all conditioned beings.” He who knows this ceases
to be in the thrall of grief. This is the Path of Purity. (279)
8. He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise and though young
and strong is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy man will
not find the Path of Wisdom. (280)

9. Guarding speech, controlling mind, not doing wrong with the body, a man
keeps the three avenues to action clear and thus finds the Path shown by the
Wise. (281)

10. From discipline of yoga springs Wisdom; from lack of it there is loss of
Wisdom. Knowing this twofold path of progress and de-

[65]

THE DHAMMAPADA

dine
let a man bend his way to the Path of Progress. (282)

11. Cut down the whole forest of desire, not single trees; danger lurks in
that forest. Having cut down trees and uprooted the weeds of desire you are
free, 0 Bhikkhus. (283)

12. So long as the desire, however small, of a man for woman is not
destroyed, so long his mind clings like a suckling calf to its mother. (284)

13. Cut out the love of Self as you would an autumn lily. Then resort to the
Path of Peace, to Nirvana. The Happy One has shown this. (285)

14. “Here shall I pass the monsoon; there shall I dwell in winter and
summer.” This is foolish reflection. He does not consider obstacle of existence.
(286)

[66]

THE PATH

15.
Flood carries off a sleeping village. Death comes and carries off the man
absorbed in cattle and children; he is distracted of mind. (287)

16. Sons are no protection, nor father, nor kinsmen when one is seized by
death. There is no help from relations when death seizes one. (288)

17. Recognizing the significance of this a wise and good man should
straightaway begin to clear the path that leads to Nirvana. (289)

[67]

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

MISCELLANEOUS

1.
If by surrendering a pleasure of little worth one sees a joy worth having, the
wise man will give up the pleasure of little worth and look to securing the deep
joy. (290) *

2. He who wishes for his own happiness and inflicts injury on others for
obtaining it is entangled in the bonds of hatred. He is not free from hatred.
(291)

3. Evil tendencies of the unrestrained and careless go on increasing if they
neglect doing what ought to be done and do that which ought not be done. (292)

4. But in those who are mindful of fleshly activities, who do not do what
should not be done, who steadfastly do what should be done, their evil
tendencies go on decreasing and come to an end. (293)

[68]

MISCELLANEOUS

5. A true Brahmana goes scatheless though he have
killed father and mother and two kings of the warrior caste and destroyed a
kingdom with all its subjects. (294)*

6. A true Brahmana goes scatheless though he have killed father and mother
and two kings of the priestly caste and as the fifth an eminent man. (295)*

7. The disciples of Gotama who are truly awake always think, by day and by
night, of the Buddha. (296)

8. The disciples of Gotama who are truly awake always think, by day and by
night, of the Dhamma. (297)

9. The disciples of Gotama who are truly awake always think, by day and by
night, of the Sangha. (298)

10. The disciples of Gotama who are truly awake always think, by day and by
night, of the true nature of the body (Kayagata sati). (299)*

[69]

THE DHAMMAPADA

11.
The disciples of Gotama who are truly awake always think, by day and by night,
of the delights of Ahimsa—Non-violence. (300)

12. The disciples of Gotama who are truly awake always think, by day and by
night, of the delights of Bhavana—Creative Meditation. (301)*
13. Hard is the life of the recluse, harder to enjoy its discipline. Hard is
the life of the householder, harder to enjoy at home. Painful it is to live with
the unsympathetic. Painful also to be a solitary wanderer. So let him not
wander. Let no one fall into suffering. (302)

14. Wheresoever a man goes who is endowed with faith, with virtue, with fame
and prosperity, even there he is revered. (303)

15. Good people shine from afar like Himalayan peaks; the wicked like arrows
shot in the night vanish unseen. (304)

[70]

MISCELLANEOUS

16. Let
one sit alone, sleep alone, act alone and unwearied subdue the self by the
Self; he finds delight being out of the forest of desires. (305)

[71]

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

THE DOWNWARD COURSE *

1.
He who reports what happened not goes to hell; also he who, having done a thing
says, “I did not.” The after-death state of both is similar; for that state they
embody their evil deeds. (306)

2. Many who wear the yellow robe are ill-natured and uncontrolled; such evil
men are born of their evil deeds in hell. (307)

3. Better it were to swallow an iron ball, red-hot and flaming, than to live
a wicked and unrestrained life eating the food of the state. (308)

7. An act carelessly done, a vow badly kept, wavering obedience to
discipline—all this
will bear no sweet fruit. (312)

8. If anything is to be done let a man attack it unflinchingly. A lax
ascetic scatters more and more the dust of his passions. (313)

9. An evil deed is better left undone—it causes suffering; a good deed is
better done—it causes no suffering. (314)

10. Guard thyself like a frontier town well guarded, within and without. Do
not let a mo-

[73]

THE DHAMMAPADA

ment
glide by; for they who let slip an opportune moment grieve when in hell. (315)

11. They who feel shame when there is no cause for shame and they who feel
no shame when they ought to be ashamed—both enter the downward path, following
false doctrines. (316)
12. They who fear when there is no cause for fear and they who do not fear
when they ought to fear—both enter the downward path, following false doctrines.
(317)

13. They who discern evil where there is no evil and they who see nothing
evil in what is evil—both enter the downward path, following false doctrines.
(318)

14. They who discern evil as evil and what is not evil as not evil enter the
good path, following the true doctrine. (319)

[74]

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

THE ELEPHANT

1.
I shall endure abuse even as the elephant on the battlefield endures the arrows
shot from the bow. The many of this world are ill-natured. (320)

2. A tamed elephant is led on to the battlefield. The king mounts a tamed
elephant. The tamed is the best among men—he who in patience endures hard words.
(321)

3. Good are mules when tamed. Good are Sindhu horses when tamed. Good are
great elephants when tamed. Better than all these is he who has tamed himself.
(322)

4. With such mounts no man can reach the untrodden land called Nirvana. A tamed
man riding on his tamed self arrives there. (323)

5. The elephant Dhanapalaka even in captivity is uncontrollable when, at the
time of rut,

[75]

THE DHAMMAPADA

his
temples are running with a pungent sap. He will not touch food but longs for the
elephant grove. (324)

6. Sluggish and gluttonous, spending time in sleep rolling from side to
side, eating like a hog—such a foolish fellow falls to birth again and again.
(325)
7. Aforetime this mind of mine would
wander as it liked, as it desired, as it pleased. Now I control it completely
even as a rider controls with his hook a rutting elephant. (326)

8. Rejoice in wakefulness. Guard well your thoughts. Draw yourself out of
evil, like an elephant sunk in the mud. (327)
9. If you find a prudent companion,
upright and self-possessed, walk with him, joyfully and mindfully, overcoming
all dangers. (328)

10. If you do not find a prudent companion, upright and self-possessed, then
walk alone like

[76]

THE ELEPHANT

a king
who has renounced his kingdom and his conquests. Be like a free elephant in the
forest. (329)

11. It is better to live alone. There is no companionship with a fool. Let a
man advance alone, committing no sin, like an elephant in the forest. (330)

12. Companions are pleasant in times of need. Enjoyment is pleasant when
shared by others. Merit is pleasant in the hour of death. Giving up of all
sorrow is pleasant. (331)

13. To have a mother in the world is happiness; to have a father in the
world is happiness. To have a recluse in the world is happiness; to have a sage
in the world is happiness. (332)

14. Virtue lasting in old age is happiness. Faith firmly rooted is
happiness. Attainment of Wisdom is happiness. Avoidance of sins is happiness
(333)

[77]

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CRAVING*

1.
The craving of a thoughtless man grows like the Maluva creeper that eats
up the tree on which it fastens. From life to life he is like a monkey seeking
fruits in a forest. (334)2.Whosoever is overcome by the fierce and poisonous craving
finds his sorrow increase like the abounding Birana grass. (335)
3. But whoso overcomes in this world the fierce craving difficult to subdue
finds his sorrows fall off like water-drops from a lotus leaf. (336)

4. This I say unto you all who have gathered here—Be blessed! Dig up the
root of craving as one in search of the sweet-scented ushira root digs up
birana grass. Thus Mara will not destroy you even as the stream destroys
the reeds on the banks. (337)

5. As a tree though hewn down grows again when its root is firm and
uninjured, even

[78]

CRAVING

so if
the root of craving is not destroyed the pains of life grow again and again.
(338)

6. The man in whom thirty-six streams run on towards pleasures, with his
thoughts fixed in passion, is himself carried away. He has wrong views. (339)

7. The streams of craving flow everywhere. The creeper of passion sprouts
and stands strong. If you see the creeper springing up cut the very roots by
wisdom. (340)

8. Pleasures and joys run to beings and attract. Hugging those pleasures
men hanker after them. Such of course are subject to old age and rebirth. (341)

9. Driven on by craving men run round like a hunted hare. Fettered and
enshackled they undergo suffering for a long time again and again. (342)

10. Driven on by craving men run round and round like the hunted hare. Let,
therefore, the

[79]

THE DHAMMAPADA

mendicant, wishing for himself freedom from passion, shake off craving. (343)

11. He who having come out of the forest of desires, goes back to it, he who
freed from the forest of desires, runs back to it—look at him, though free he
re-enters bondage. (344)
12-13. Wise people do not call that a
strong fetter which is made of iron, wood or fibre; but jewels and precious
stones, sons and wives form stronger fetters. These latter drag down, and though
they can be overcome they are difficult to undo. Having destroyed such a fetter
let a man renounce the world, let him be free of longing, and having forsaken
the pleasures of the senses, let him not look behind. (345-346)

14. Slave to their desires men run down the streams
just as a spider runs into the net he himself has spun. Steadfast persons retire
from the world when they have cut the bond, and leaving all sorrow behind they
look not behind. (347)

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CRAVING

15.
Be free from the future; be free of the past; be free in the present; cross to
the yonder shore. With a mind wholly free you will not fall into birth and
death. (348)

16. Craving grows in a disturbed mind, also when passions flourish, and when
yearnings for the pleasant arise. Thus fetters grow strong. (349)
17. He who delights in quieting
his disturbed mind and becomes mindful of the pleasant but undesirable nature of
craving, he will certainly remove, nay destroy, the bondage of
Mara. (350)

18. He who has reached the goal, who is fearless, who is without craving
and without sin, he has removed all thorns of life; this is his last life. (351)

19.He who is free from craving, without attachment, who penetrates
with insight words

[81]

THE DHAMMAPADA

and
texts and knows their orderliness, he is a Sage, a Great Person. This is his
last life. (352)

20. “I have conquered all. I know all. I am free from taint whatever the
living condition. I have renounced all. I am free as all craving is extinct. I
have penetrated Wisdom Supreme. Then, from whom have I learnt?” (353)

[This verse, it is inferred, was spoken by the Buddha in answer to an
enquiry: “Who is your Master?” One authority suggests that the Buddha’s answer
was to the Brahmana Upaka on his way to Benares. The answer is a good example of
the observance of silence and secrecy while full veracity is maintained.]

21. The gift of the Law (Dhamma Danam) excels all gifts. The flavour
of the Law excels all flavours. Delight in the Law excels all delights.
Extinction of craving is the end of pain. (354)

[82]

CRAVING

22.
Riches destroy the foolish, not those who seek the Beyond. By his craving for
possessions the foolish man destroys himself, fancying he is ruining another.
(355)
23. Weeds are the bane of fields. Lusts
are the bane of humankind. Therefore a gift bestowed on those who are free from
lusts brings great reward. (356)

24. Weeds are the bane of fields. Ill-will is the bane of humankind.
Therefore a gift bestowed on those who are free from ill-will brings great
reward. (357)

25. Weeds are the bane of fields. Delusion is the bane of humankind.
Therefore a gift bestowed on those who are free from delusion brings great
reward. (358)

26. Weeds are the bane of fields. Desire is the bane of humankind. Therefore
a gift bestowed on those who are free from desire brings great reward. (359)

[83]

CHAPTER TWENTY-F1VE

THE BHIKKHU

1-2. Restraint in the eye is
good; good is restraint in the ear; restraint in the nose is good; good is
restraint in the tongue; in the body restraint is good; good is restraint in
speech; in the mind restraint is good; good is restraint in all things. A
Bhikkhu who is restrained in all things is free from all pain. (360-361)
3. Call him a Bhikkhu who controls his
hand, also his feet; who controls his speech; who is well controlled; who is
happy within himself; who is collected and full of contentment in the solitary
life. (362)
4. Sweet is the preaching of that
Bhikkhu who guards his tongue in speaking wisdom, who elucidates both the letter
and the spirit of the Law without being puffed up. (363)

5. He who abides in the Law, who delights in the Law, who meditates on the
Law, who re-

[84]

THE BHIKKHU

members well the Law—such a Bhikkhu
does not fall from the sublime Law. (364)

6. Let him not disdain what he has received; let him not envy others; a
Bhikkhu who envies others will not obtain peace in meditation. (365)

7. Even the gods praise that Bhikkhu who disdains not what he has received,
however little, but lives a strenuous and pure life. (366)

8. He indeed is a Bhikkhu who does not identify his soul with his name and form,
his mind and body, and who grieves not for what he does not possess. (367)

9. The Bhikkhu who practises Metta, Compassion, and who abides happily in
the Wisdom of the Buddha, he has stilled conditioned existence and attains of a
surety the blessed state of Peace Supreme. (368)

[85]

THE DHAMMAPADA

10.
Empty the boat, 0 Bhikkhu; when emptied it will go lightly. Cut off lust and
ill-will and then you will reach Nirvana. (369)

11. Cut off the five. Get rid of the five. Cultivate further the five. The
thus fivefold delivered Bhikkhu is named Oghatinna”—“One who has
crossed the flood.” (370) *

12. Meditate, 0 Bhikkhu; do not be heedless. Let not your mind whirl around
the pleasures of the senses. Do not be reckless lest you have to swallow the
iron-ball and then cry not in burning pain, “This is suffering.” (371)

13. Without insight there is no meditation and also without meditation there
is no insight. With both insight and meditation one approaches Nirvana (372)

14. Superhuman is the bliss of that Bhikkhu who has a calm mind and a right
discernment of the Law when he comes to his secluded spot. (373)

[86]

THE BHIKKHU

15. What time, with perfect recollection, he recognizes the rise and fall
of skandhas (origin and destruction of the personal self) joy and
happiness are his. This is life eternal. (374)

16. This is the beginning for a wise Bhikkhu: guarding of the senses;
contentment; discipline according to Patimokha rules; cultivation of friends who
are noble, pure and zealous. (375)

17. Let him be hospitable, kindly and courteous—skilled in the discharge of
his duties. Then his happiness, being profound, his suffering comes to an end.
(376)

18. As the vasika plant sheds its withered flowers, so you, 0 Bhikkhus,
should shed passion and ill-will. (377)

19. The Bhikkhu who is calm in body, calm in speech, calm in mind, who is
firm, and who has thrown out the baits of the world, is named “The Tranquil
One.” (378)

21. For Self is the lord of self; Self is the refuge of self; therefore curb
yourself, even as
a merchant curbs a fine horse. (380)

22. The Bhikkhu fulfilled of joy and with faith in the teachings of the
Buddha attains the state which is condition-less—the Abode of Peace. (381)

23. Even a young Bhikkhu who applies to himself the teachings of the Buddha,
illuminate this world, like the moon from a cloud released. (382)

[88]

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE BRAHAMANA *

1.
O Brahamana, be energetic; dam the stream; cut away desires. When you
understand how things get disintegrated you will also realize the Uncreate, 0
Brahamana. (383)

2.
‘When a Brahamana reaches the other shore by meditation and insight he attains
knowledge and is free of all fetters. (384)

3.
Him I call a Brahamana for whom there is neither this nor the further shore.
Fearless and free, he is beyond both. (385)

4. Him I call a Brahamana who is meditative, stainless, settled; whose duty
is done and
depravities gone; who has attained the highest end. (386)

5. The sun shines by day; the moon lights up the night. The warrior
(Kshatriya) is splendent in his armour; the Brahamana in his (387)

[89]

THE DHAMMAPADA

meditation. But the Buddha shines day and night, radiating his glory.(387)

6.
Because he has driven away sin he is called a Brahamana; because he lives in
serenity he is called a Samana; because he has put away worldliness he is called
Pabbajita. (388) *
7. None should attack a Brahamana; a
Brahamana should not retaliate; woe to him who strikes a Brahamana; more woe to
the Brahamana if he retaliates. (389)

8. It is no slight benefit to a Brahamana when he holds back his mind from
the allurements of life. Moreover, when the intent to harm ceases, then in
direct measure is the cessation of suffering. (390)

9. Him I call a Brahamana who offends not by body, speech or mind; who
is controlled in these three things. (391)

10. Even as a Brahamana worships the sacrificial fire, so should one
reverence him who

[90]

T H E B R A H A M A N A

understands the Law of the fully Enlightened One. (392)

11. Not by matted locks, not by lineage, not by caste does one become a
Brahamana. By his truth and righteousness man becomes a Brahamana. He is
blessed. (393)

12. What avails thy matted hair, 0 fool? What avails thy deer skin?
Outwardly you clean yourself, within you there is ravening. (394)

13-14. Him I call a Brahamana who, alone in a forest, is plunged in
meditation, on whose emaciated body veins stand out and which is covered in old
rags. I call him not a Brahamana because of his origin or his mother. He may be
an affluent and supercilious Bhovadi.* He who is detached and possessionless, he is a
Brahamana. 395-396) *

15. Him I call a Brahamana who has destroyed all fetters and has nothing to
fear, who is unshackled and emancipated. (397)

[91]

THE DHAMMAPADA

16.
Him I call a Brahamana who has cut the straps of hatred, and the thong of
craving, and the rope of heresies and its appurtenances of latent tendencies,
who has burst the bar of ignorance and has awakened. (398)

17. Him I call a Brahamana who though innocent of all offence patiently
bears reproach, ill-treatment and confinement. Patience is his force, his own
strength his army. (399)

18. Him I call a Brahamana who is free from anger, devoted to duties,
practises divine virtues, who is without craving and controlled. He wears his
last body. (400)

19. Him I call a Brahamana from whom desires drop like water from a lotus
leaf or mustard seed on the point of an awl. (401)

20. Him I call a Brahamana who, even here, knows the end of his suffering,
who has laid aside his burden and is detached. (402)

[92]

THE BRAHAMANA

21.
Him I call a Brahamana whose wisdom is profound, who knows and discerns the
right way and the wrong and who has attained the highest end. (403)

22. Him I call a Brahamana who is not intimate with householders or monks
and who does not frequent houses and who has but few wants. (404)

23. Him I call a Brahamana who puts away his rod, who kills not, nor causes
others to kill any creature, feeble or strong. (405)

24. Him I call a Brahamana who is friendly among the hostile, mild among the
violent, Ungrasping among the greedy. (406)

25. Him I call a Brahamana from whom lust and ill-will, pride and
ingratitude have fallen away like a mustard seed from the point of an awl. (407)

[93]

THE DHAMMAPADA

26. Him I call a Brahamana whose speech is truthful,
gentle, instructive, which offends no one. (408)

27. Him I call a Brahamana who takes nothing that is not given to him, be it
long or short, small or large, good or bad. (409)

28. Him I call a Brahamana who has no desire pertaining to this world or the
next, who has no inclinations and is unshackled. (410)

29. Him I call a Brahamana who has no desires, who has destroyed his doubts
by knowledge and has plumbed the depth of the Eternal. (411)

30. Him I call a Brahamana who here is above the bondage of merit and
demerit, who is free from grief, free from passion and who is pure. (412)

31. Him I call a Brahamana who like the moon is stainless, pure, serene
and clear, and who delights not in existence. (413)

[94]

THE BRAHAMANA

32. Him I call a Brahamana who
has gone beyond the miry road of rebirth and delusion difficult to cross and who
has reached the other shore; who is meditative, who is without doubt, without
attachment, who is calm and content. (414)

33-34. Him I call a Brahamana who, in this world, giving up sensual
pleasures, wanders about without a home, in whom all desire for existence is
extinguished. Again, him I call a Brahamana who, in this world, giving up all
craving wanders about without a home, in whom all craving for existence is
extinguished. (415-416)

35. Him I call a Brahamana who has cut off the yoke of attachment to human
things, has risen above attachment to heavenly things, has transcended all
attachments. (417)

36. Him I call a Brahamana who has done with likes and dislikes, who is
cool, who for re-

[95]

THE DHAMMAPADA

newed
existence is seedless; he is the hero who has conquered the worlds. (418)

37. Him I call a Brahamana who knows the mystery of death and rebirth of all
beings, who is free from attachment, who is happy within himself and
enlightened. (419)

38. Him I call a Brahamana whose real state gods (Devas) do not know, nor
Gandharvas* nor men; his depravities destroyed, he is an Arhat. (420)*

39. Him I call a Brahamana who has nothing of his own pertaining to the past,
the present and the future, who is possessionless and detached (421)

40. Him I call a Brahamana who is fearless like a bull, who is preeminent
and of dauntless energy, who is a sage-seer, who has conquered all, even
death—the sinless one, the enlightened (422)

[96]

THE BRAHAMANA

41.
Him I call a Brahamana who knows his former lives, who knows heaven and hell,
who has reached the end of births, who is a sage of perfect knowledge and who
has accomplished all that has to be accomplished. (423)

[97]

NOTES

Note
on Verses 1 and 2

The
word Dhamma is used; everything and every person expresses his Dhamma,
its or his own peculiar property, e.g., water’s dhamma is
wetness, etc. In Buddhistic psychology Dhamma not only means Law,
Religion, Duty, but also Quality, Phenomenon, Property, etc. [see Nyanatiloka’s
Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines), which becomes the forerunner or
bearer or herald of mind-action. Dhamma, Mental Nature, is the result of
Vignana which is called Manas. So, creatures derive their character from
mind. In all, the primal element is mind.
Note on Verse 5

Law Eternal is in the original Dhammo Sanatano, Ancient or Eternal Law—the fount and basis of all
Dharma. The Hindus refer often to their religion as Sanatana Dharma,
Eternal Religion; every religion claims to be the foundation of religious
belief and so of practice. This Verse teaches the basic principle of the Good
Life, and every man who starts off his exercise with living this teaching is a
true Sanatanist—.

[99]

THE DHAMMAPADA

follower of the original Wisdom Religion, Bodhi Dharma or Sanatana
Dharma, Eternal Religion.
Notes on Verse 8
The discipline is mental and consists in a remembrance of the inauspicious
nature of worldly objects; to be mindful and guard against them.
Energy—Virya—is dissipated when it flows Outwards to contact the objects
of sense; its conservation is considered a virtue, Paramita—"the dauntless
energy that fights its way to the supernal Truth, out of the mire of lies
terrestrial.”
Note on the title of Chapter 2 - Appamada

The term has been translated differently: Carefulness; Diligence;
Earnestness; Heedfulness; Reflection; Thoughtfulness; Wakefulness; Watchfulness;
Zeal. The translation of the Chinese text by Samuel Beal puts it as
“Carelessness” (Thoughtlessness). The Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines
states that the term implies Non-laxity, Indefatigableness, Zeal, and is
considered the foundation of all progress; and it quotes Anguttara-Nikaya
x.15: “Just as all the

[100]

NOTES

footprints of living beings are surpassed by the footprint of the elephant and
that footprint is considered as the mightiest, just so have all the meritorious
qualities zeal as their foundation, and zeal is considered as the mightiest of
these qualities.”
Note on the title of Chapter 3 - Chitta

The term is used in almost every verse of this chapter. It has been
variously translated—Heart, Mind, Reflection, Thought. The term implies
Mindfulness, Mental Attentiveness, Mental Deliberateness. It is a state of human
self-consciousness. Chitta is not mind which, attracted by the objects of
senses and contacting them, wanders. Chitta is the superior power which
can check, control and use the mind. It is sometimes spoken of as abstracted
consciousness. It is the power of the Thinker who uses it to control, purify and
elevate the mind. The mind is the instrument of the Thinker, the Human Soul, the
Real Man, Manushya. Chitta is that state of mental consciousness in which
the mind steadied becomes porous to the higher, spiritual and divine influences
of the Real Man.

[101]

THE DHAMMAPADA

Note on Verse 45

The term for Disciple is Sekha, one who is learning, is under
training, who is taught the Holy Wisdom. He determines not to remain a worldling
any more, but to become a Hearer, a Listener, a Savaka or Shravaka
with a view to apply to life what he hears and thus become a Samana or
Shramana. These two appellations answer to the Greek terms akoustikoi
and asketai. The Sekha, the Disciple, flowers into the perfection of
Asekha, one who is no longer a Sekha, a Disciple, for he has nothing
more to learn, he is perfect in wisdom.
Note on Verse 89

Elements of Enlightenment: These are
seven in number and are also called Links of Enlightenment, because they lead to
Nirvana. They are (1)Mindfulness or attentiveness or self-possession,
(2)Wisdom or investigation of the Doctrine (Dhamma), (3) Energy, (4) Joyousness or Rapture, (5) Serenity, (6) Concentration or Meditation, i.e.,
firmly fixed (Samadhi), (7)Equanimity.

[102]

NOTES

Note on Verse 178

Sottapati or Srotapatti - “He who enters the stream” whose source is the
Mount of Nirvana, and which flows to the ocean of Liberation. The Book of the
Golden Precepts of the Mahayana tradition says:

“On Sowan’s Path, 0 Srotapatti, thou art secure. Aye, on that Marga where
nought but darkness meets the weary pilgrim, where torn by thorns the hands drip
blood, the feet are cut by sharp, unyielding flints, and Mara wields his
strongest arms—there lies a great reward immediately beyond.

Calm and unmoved the Pilgrim glideth up the stream that to Nirvana leads. He
knoweth that the more his feet will bleed, the whiter will himself be washed. He
knoweth well that after seven short and fleeting births Nirvana will be his.
.
Such is the Dhyana Path, the haven of the Yogi, the blessed goal that
Srotapattis crave.”

There are Two Paths—of Liberation and of Renunciation.

Note
on Verse 202

Personal existence is, in the
original, the assemblage of five skandhas. These are (1) Body, (2) Sen-

Sankhara is the fourth of the five skandhas, but here it is used as
personal existence. Tendencies of the mind is the starting base of the
personality.

“Hunger” in this verse, and likewise “Health” in Verse 204 refer not only to
the physical bodily but psychic and mental hunger and health also.
Note on Verses 218-220

The soul named “Bound up-stream” is the same soul who “Entered the
stream” (see Verse 178). He who was called Sottapati is now named
Uddhamsoto. The failure of the Sottapati results from his identifying
himself with the downward flowing current of life; he empties himself into the
ocean of Liberation. But the discerning Sottapati knows that the stream
flows down; so moving, he endeavours to seek the Source of Nirvanic heights by
great and right exertion, by buffeting against the forces of the stream he
reaches the grade where he is named “Bound up-

[104]

NOTES

stream.” Two paths—Liberation and Renunciation— are implied.
Note on Verse 290

Though it is not very clearly enunciated, the implication of this verse
seems to be distinguishing between pleasures of the lower order, pertaining to
the personality, and the joys of the soul arising out of the disciplined life.
Note on Verses 294-295

These verses seem puzzling. Taken in an allegorical sense, however, they
are not. For light on them we extract from the Introduction to Texts from the
Buddhist Canon, translated by Samuel Beal:

“With respect to these verses, both Professor Max Muller and Professor
Childers are inclined to regard them as showing that a truly holy man who
commits such sins as those specified is nevertheless guiltless. But in the third
book, p. 3, of the ‘Lankâvatâra Sutra’ we find the following exposition of this
doctrine:—“At this time Mahâmati Bodhisatwa addressed Buddha and said,
“According to the assertion of the Great Teacher, if a male or female disciple
should commit

[105]

THE DHAMMAPADA

either
of the unpardonable sins, he or she, nevertheless, shall not be cast into hell.
World-honoured One! how can this be, that such a disciple shall escape though
guilty of such sins ?“ To whom Buddha replied, ‘Mahâmati! attend, and
weigh my words well!

What are these live unpardonable sins of which you speak? They are these, to
slay father or mother, to wound a Rahat, to offend (i.e. to place a
stumbling- block in the way of) the members of the sangha (church), to draw the
blood from the body of a Buddha. Mahâmati! say, then, how a man committing these
sins can be guiltless? In this way—is not Love (Tanha) which covets
pleasure more and more, and so produces ‘birth’—is not this the mother (mâtâ)
of all? And is not ‘ignorance’ (avidyâ) the father(pitâ) of all? To
destroy these two, then, is to slay father and mother. And again, to cut off and
destroy those ten ‘kieshas’ (Ch. shi) which like the rat, or the
secret poison, work invisibly, and to get rid of all the consequences of these
faults (i.e. to destroy all material associations), this is to wound a
Rahat. And so to cause offence and overthrow a church or assembly, what is this
but to separate entirely the connection of the live skandhas? (“live
aggregates,”which is the same word as that used above for the
“Church”). And again, to draw the blood of a Buddha, what is this but to wound
and get rid of the sevenfold body by the

[106]

NOTES

three
methods of escape. . . .
Thus it is, Mahâmati, the holy male or
female disciple may slay father and mother, wound a Rahat, overthrow the
assembly, draw the blood of Buddha, and yet escape the punishment of the lowest
hell (avichi).”
And in order to explain and enforce this more fully, the World-honoured One
added the following stanzas:

“Lust,”
or carnal desire, this is the Mother,
“Ignorance,” this is the Father,
The highest point of knowledge, this is Buddha,
All the “Kleshas,”
these are the Rahats,
The five Skandhas, these are the Priests,
To commit the five unpardonable sins
Is to destroy these five
And yet not suffer the pains of hell.”
Note on Verse 299
I t is said (Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka) that meditation
referred to here is on “32parts of the body.” The term kaya,
however, may well be said to possess a clue to the mystical doctrine of
Nirmanakaya, Dharmakaya, and Sambhogakaya—the spiritual forms or robes sublime
of those who attain perfection.

[107]

THE DHAMMAPADA

Note
on Verse 301

Bhavana is a particular type of meditation; it is creative and so delightful
to the consciousness. There are numerous Bhavanas mentioned: Kaya-bhavana;
Metta (Pity) —bhavana; Karuna (Compassion) — bhavana, etc.
Note on the title of Chapter 22—Niraya, the Downward Course, generally called
“Hell”

The term Hell is differently understood—a place of eternal suffering,
etc. The Buddhistic conception of Hell is that it is a self-made state of
consciousness to which a man brings himself by his own evil propensities. It is
well described as a state devoid of happiness or rest in whatever life, in
whatever world, and, like all other states, changes and passes. Buddhist
Dictionary by Nyanatiloka says: “Niraya, lit, the Downward Path, the nether
or infernal world, mostly translated with Hell,’ is one of the 4 lower courses
of existence (apaya—[I] the animal world; [2] ghost world; [3] demon world; and [4] Hell). The Buddhists are well
aware that on account of the universal sway of impermanence, even life in hell,
just as in

[108]

NOTES

heaven,
cannot last eternally, but will, after exhaustion of the wholesome or
unwholesome Karma, of necessity be followed again by a new death, and a new
rebirth, according to the stored up Karma.”
Note on the title of Chapter 24—Tanha

Tanha, Craving, is regarded as the origin of suffering and its
extinction should be the aim of man. Of the four Noble Truths, the second and
the third refer to the existence-origin and continuity—of craving. Three main
cravings are mentioned —( 1) Thirst for earthly objects (Kama-tanha); (2) Thirst for living on (Bhava-tanha); (3) Thirst for spiritual experience (Vibhava-tanha).
Says the Mahayana text:

“Kill love of life; but if thou slayest Tanha, let this not be for thirst of
life eternal, but to replace the fleeting by the everlasting.” (The Voice of
the Silence, p. 15.) Tanha is “the will to live, the fear of death, and love
for life, that force or energy which causes rebirth.” Nyanatiloka’s Buddhist
Dictionary gives them as (1) Kama-tanha, sensual existence, (2) Rupatanha, fine-material existence and (3) Arupa-tanha, Immaterial existence. Tanha is a vast
field and is related to Karma, Skandhas and Nidanas.

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THE DHAMMAPADA

Note
on Verse 370
The five to be cut off—( 1) Delusion of personality; (2) Doubt,
i.e., “sceptical doubt—the not wishing to understand”; (3) False Asceticism and “clinging to mere rules and
ritual”; (4) Yearning for desire fulfilment; and (5) Ill-will.

The five to get rid of—(1) Desire for life in worlds of form; (2)
Desire for life in formless worlds; (3) Self-will; (4) Restlessness; (5) Ignorance.

The five to be cultivated—(1) Faith; (2) Attention; (3) Dauntless Energy;
(4) Meditation; and
(5) Wisdom.
Ogha = flood; one who has crossed over the flood of the
four Asavas or Biases—(1) Bias in favour of sensuous living; (2) Bias for
continuing with life; (3)
Bias in favour of one’s own views; (4) (5)Bias arising out of ignorance.
Note on the title of Chapter
26 — Brahamana

It must be noted that Gautama, the Enlightened One, did not descend into
incarnation for the purpose of establishing another religion. Like his
Illustrious

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NOTES

Predecessors, he was a Protestant and a Reformer. The Mighty Art taught 2500
years before him by Krishna was once again lost. The caste system was given a
wrong colouring, contrary to the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. The
Buddha tried to restore the true teachings about the castes, and especially the
Brahamana caste; these caste-men had arrogated to themselves a position which by
character and behaviour they did not deserve. In this Chapter, Buddha describes
the nature and character of the true Brahamana. The true Brahamana felt the
power of his poverty and was rich in virtue and knowledge. That ancient ideal
the Buddha upholds in this chapter.
Note on Verse 388

Pabbajita from Pabbajja literally “the going forth,” i.e.,
going forth from the home-life to the home-less. By this he becomes a novice,
listening to the Teachings of the Buddha with a view to apply them. As a
listener he is known as shravaka; when he practises and applies to
himself the teachings he is a shramana, i.e., exerciser. When he succeeds
in overcoming all

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THE DHAMMAPADA

tendency to sin he is to be known as a Brahamana. He listens, he applies, he
attains.
Note on Verse 396

Bhovadi—one who says “Bho.” Arrogant and supercilious Brahamanas of the day
considering themselves equal in Wisdom and Purity addressed the Buddha as Bho
Gotama. They called out “Bho” also for their menials. So a Brahamana in name but
not in reality is here named Bhovadi.”
Note on Verse 420

Gandharvas are a class of demi-gods or angels. They are celestial
choristers and musicians. They are custodians of the Soma plant and could reveal
the secrets of heaven and earth and the esoteric science to men. One of their
offices was to prepare the Soma juice for the gods or devas. This verse teaches
that the Enlightened Man is superior to Gods and Gandharvas.

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SOME
MODERN PERSPECTIVES ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

PRINCE
SIDDARTHA, named Gotama by his family, and Buddha,
“the enlightened one,” by his disciples, was born in 567 B.C. to the ruler of a
small Indian kingdom. Since his life story is well known to readers of Edwin
Arnold’s Light of Asia, and
is available in many other accounts, we shall not repeat it here, but rather
attempt to place the work of this great man in respect to the religious and
philosophical thought of the world.

There is, first of all, a greater kinship felt for Buddha by Westerners than
for any other figure in Eastern religion. Christians recognize the ethics of
Jesus in Buddhist precepts. Western thinkers, to whom science has been the
principal guide, sense that Buddha shared their own distrust of bigotry and
uncritical belief. In H. G. Wells’ Outline of History, for example,
Buddha receives the unqualified admiration of the author as one of the world’s
greatest men, surely the greatest religious teacher. In recent years, various
Western essayists have pointed out that in the teachings of

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

Buddha is found an approach to the
problems of life which in no way violates the scientific spirit. It seems likely
that, in years to come, this interest in Buddha will continue to increase,
especially since modern psychologists have discovered in Buddha’s teachings many
perceptions which anticipated their own findings by more than two thousand
years.

Buddha is commonly thought of as a great religious reformer. He was
certainly this; but he ought not to be thought of as wholly abandoning the
religious philosophy in which, as a youth, he had been instructed. He was rather
a purifier and resuscitator of the religion of the Hindus, and in the terms of
Hindu religion he was himself a personage of cosmological importance. In
Hinduism, the entire universe is said to be pervaded by the Supreme Spirit,
Brahma, who is All, and in All. As Henry Morley puts it in his Introduction to
Charles Wilkins’ Hitopadesa:

He is the supreme Brahma, who created the world by three manifestations
drawn from himself, and named Brahmá, Vishnu, Siva, originally united in one
essence, so that “the great One” became known as one Person and three gods.
Brahmâ
represents creation, Vishnu preservation, and Siva destruction. Of Vishnu, the
Preserver, there have been nine Ava-

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ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

tar or Incarnations, the first six
were in the golden age of the world, the seventh was as Rama, the eighth as
Krishna, the ninth as Buddha. The tenth, in which he will appear as a white
horse, is yet awaited. In his last Avatar, as Buddha, Vishnu promoted scepticism
to the end that the giants, wanting faith, might cease to obtain by prayer the
powers that they misapplied.

Whatever the meaning of this symbolic explanation of Buddha’s “scepticism,”
and whoever may be the “giants” of this tale—whether supernatural beings or
atomic physicists and the governments which employ them, the reader must
determine for himself— the influence of Buddha on his time and all generations
thereafter, increasingly, throughout the world, has been of unqualified
beneficence. An English traveler and scholar, G. Lowes Dickinson, having visited
the famous Buddhist temple of Borobudur, in Java, tells how the story of
Buddha’s life is depicted by images carved in high relief about the temple’s
walls. Dickinson speaks of the quality of this man’s life—the same man whom
another Englishman, Sir Edwin Arnold, said had “made all Asia mild”;

We see the new-born child with his feet on lotuses. We see the fatal
encounter with poverty,

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

sickness, and death. We see the renunciation, the sojourn in the wilderness, the
attainment under the bo-tree, the preaching of the Truth. And all this
sculptured gospel seems to bring home to one, better than the volumes of the
learned, what Buddhism really meant to the masses of its followers. It meant,
surely, not the denial of the soul or of God, but that warm impulse of pity and
love that beats still in these tender and human pictures. It meant not the hope
or desire for extinction, but the charming dream of thousands of lives, past and
to come, in many forms, many conditions, many diverse fates. The pessimism of
the master is as little likely as his high philosophy to have reached the mind
or the heart of the people. The whole history of Buddhism, indeed, shows that it
did not, and does not. What touched them in him was the saint and the lover of
animals and men. And this love it was that flowed in streams over the world,
leaving wherever it passed, in literature and art, in pictures of flowers or
mountains, in fables and poems and tales, the trace of its warm and humanizing
flood. (Appearances, pp. 41-2.)

Buddha’s austere philosophy may have spread more widely than Dickinson
imagined. When it reached the United States in the form of Arnold’s Light of
Asia, it made Lafcadio Hearn, that poet among writers,

[118]

ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

predict
that “Buddhism in some esoteric form may prove the religion of the future.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes devoted twenty-six pages to the poem in a contemporary
review, and many thousands of others, since, have found deep inspiration in the
story of a prince who became a savior of mankind.

Meanwhile, the ethics of Buddhism captured even the hearts of eminent
Christians, making Bishop Milman say: “Among heathen precursors of the Truth I
feel more and more that Sakyamuni is the nearest in character and effect to Him
Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.” And Dr. Inman, author of Ancient
Faith and Modern, wrote:

I speak with sober earnestness when I say that after forty years’ experience
among those who profess Christianity, and those who proclaim. . . more or less quietly their disagreement with it, I
have noticed more sterling virtue and morality among the last than the first.
. . . I know personally many pious, good Christian
people, whom I honor, admire, and, perhaps, would be glad to emulate or equal;
but they deserve the eulogy thus passed on to them; in consequence of their good
sense, having ignored the doctrine of faith to a great degree, and having
cultivated the practice of good works. . , . In

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

my
judgment the most praiseworthy Christians whom I know are modified Buddhists,
though probably, not one of them ever heard of Siddartha.

Ethically, then, the teachings of Gotama Buddha are without a rival, save
that they be the same teachings in another form and known by another name. From
the scientific point of view, a similar uniqueness seems to prevail. Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan, the well-known Indian scholar and historian of Indian philosophy,
has noted (in his Indian Philosophy) that early Buddhism “in its
fundamental ideas and essential spirit approximates remarkably . . . the advanced scientific thought of the nineteenth
century.” The German pessimism of Schopenhauer and Hartman, Dr. Radhakrishnan
reminds his readers, has been called “little more than Buddhism vulgarized,” and
he adds that “Buddhism is a splendid prophecy of the creative evolutionism of
Bergson.”

There are further parallels between Buddha’s views and the rise of modern
scientific thought. The dominant religion of Buddha’s lifetime was becoming
stultified by endless metaphysical disputation. According to Rhys Davids, there
were “sixty-two theories prevalent at the time of Gautama Buddha.” He was,
there-

[120]

ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

fore,
an iconoclast as well as a teacher, and he also wanted to bring an end to the
cruelty of anthropomorphic religion. As Radhakrishnan puts it:

There is much damage done to the moral nature of man by a superstitious
belief in God. Many good men do devil’s work in the belief that it has divine
sanction. It is difficult to overestimate the amount of evil which has resulted
in the world from a confusion of morality and religion. Abraham is commanded by
God to sacrifice his son, and Saul is called upon to massacre his captive in
cold blood. The views which under the name of religion crept into life and had
so far prevailed as almost to extinguish any spark of spiritual vigour cut
Buddha to the quick.

The sceptics on this theory need not be moral. So long as morality is based
on a divine command miraculously conveyed, every discovery of science and
development of thought would impair the basis of morals. The feeble in faith may
reject the sanctions of morality.

Buddha, like Lucretius, felt that the world would be better for the triumph
of natural law over supernaturalism. By announcing a religion which proclaimed
that each man could gain salvation for himself without the mediation of priests
or reference to gods, he would increase the respect for human

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

nature
and raise the tone of morality. “It is a foolish idea to suppose that another
can cause us happiness or misery.” After Buddha did his work, the belief in the
permanence and universality of natural law became almost an instinct of the
Indian mind.

We shall see. . . that the world of experience according to Buddha
does not require for its explanation any God. The law of karma will do. There is
the implication of the Highest, but it is not a matter of logical demonstration.

Thus scholars and philosophers, and even Western religionists in whom an
honest impartiality prevails, may be found deeply attracted to Buddhist thought.
And today, there is a distinct revival of the vitality of Buddhism in the East.
In Burma, in Prime Minister U Nu was instrumental in convoking a great council
of Buddhists from many lands, an event which may be counted a fortunate
accompaniment of the awakening of the nationalist spirit in the East. Western
history would have been less bloody by far had there been a like influence at
work at the time of the birth of the Western nations.

Burma, however, has long been the home of a practical Buddhist faith.
Perhaps the best account of the way in which Buddhism pervades and refines

[122]

ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

the
lives of simple people living in the village communities of the Far East is
The Soul of a People, by Fielding Hall. Hall went to Burma at the time of
the British conquest of that land, remaining as a civil administrator. He tells
in his book how he could not help but be impressed by the serenity of the
people. Observing, he found that the temper of the Burmese people was a Buddhist
heritage.

Of course, like every other popular religion in the world, Buddhism has
acquired its share of supernatural elements. Marvels attend the birth, the life
and the death of Sakyamuni. Fielding Hall comments;

Therefore at first sight it seems that of all creeds none is so full of
miracle, so teeming with the supernatural, as Buddhism, which is, indeed, the
very reverse of the truth. For to the supernatural Buddhism owes nothing at all.
It is in its very essence opposed to all that goes beyond what we can see of
earthly laws, and miracle is never used as evidence of the truth of any dogma or
of any doctrine.

If every supernatural occurrence were wiped clean out of the chronicles of
the faith, Buddhism would, even to the least understanding of its followers,
remain exactly where it is. Not in one jot or tittle would it suffer in the
authority of its teaching. The great figure of the teacher would even gain were
all

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

the
tinsel of the miraculous swept from him, so that he stood forth to the world as
he lived—would gain not only to our eyes, but even to theirs who believe in him.
For the Buddha was no prophet. He was no messenger from any power above this
world, revealing laws of that power. No one came to whisper into his ear the
secrets of eternity, and to show him where truth lived. In no trance, no vision,
did he enter into the presence of the Unknown, and return from thence full of
the wisdom of another world; neither did he teach the worship of any god, any
power. He breathed no threatenings of revenge for disobedience, of forgiveness
for the penitent. He held out no everlasting hell to those who refused to follow
him, no easily gained heaven to his believers.

Nothing is more clear than this: that to the Buddhist his teacher was but a
man like himself, erring and weak, who made himself perfect, and that even as
his teacher has done, so, too, may he if he do but observe the everlasting laws
of life which the Buddha has shown to the world. These laws are as immutable as
Newton’s laws, and come, like his, from beyond our ken.

Since Western interpreters have a natural sympathy for Buddha’s distrust of
supernaturalism, his wariness in respect to any teachings concerning the
immortality

[124]

ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

of the
soul has been seized upon by European commentators with particular enthusiasm.
They, like him, feel that the world of religious believers has been much misled
and put upon by dogmatic versions of a life after death. It seems likely,
however, that these Westerners differ from Buddha in one fundamental respect.
Whereas they incline to champion the view that the idea of immortality is a
superstition which is best abandoned entirely, Buddha seems rather to have felt
only that a presumptuous certainty is best replaced by the open-mindedness which
awaits authentic confirmation of transcendental conceptions.

Buddha’s attitude towards direct questions about the soul is perhaps well
illustrated by his refusal to reply at all to the inquiries of the monk,
Vacchagotta. The story of this encounter and the explanation made by Buddha to
Ananda, his disciple, is repeated in The Creed of Buddha, by Edmond
Holmes:

........the wandering monk, Vacchagotta, went to where the Exalted One was
staying. When he had come near him, he saluted him. When saluting him, he had
interchanged friendly words with him, he sat down beside him. Sitting beside
him, the wandering monk Vacchagotta spake to the Exalted One,

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

saying:
“How does the matter stand, venerable Gotama, is there the Ego ?“
When he said this, the Exalted One was silent.

“How then, venerable Gotama, is there not the Ego?”

And still the Exalted One maintained silence. Then the wandering monk
Vacchagotta rose from his seat and went away.

But the venerable Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta had gone to a
distance, soon said to the Exalted One:

“Wherefore, sire, has the Exalted One not given an answer to the questions
put by the wandering monk Vacchagotta?”

“If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me: ‘Is there the
Ego?’ had answered: ‘The Ego is,’ then that, Ananda, would have confirmed the
doctrines of the Samanas and Brahmanas who believe in permanence. If I, Ananda,
when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me:

“Is there not the Ego?’ had answered: ‘The Ego is not,” then that, Ananda,
would have confirmed the doctrine of the Samanas and Brahmanas who believe in
annihilation. If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me: ‘Is
there the Ego?’ had answered: ‘The Ego is,” would that have served

[126]

ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

my end,
Ananda, by producing in him the knowledge: all existences are non-Ego?”

“That it would not, sire.”

“But if I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me: ‘Is there
not the Ego?’ had answered: ‘The Ego is not,’ then that, Ananda, would only have
caused the wandering monk Vacchagotta to be thrown from one bewilderment to
another: ‘My Ego, did it not exist before? But now it exists no longer!’

Dr. Holmes comments:

In this story Buddha gives two reasons for refusing to answer Vacchagotta’s
question. He is asked to answer Yes or No. Whichever answer he may give, some
school of metaphysics is sure to claim him as its own. And whichever answer he
may give, he is sure to bewilder Vacchagotta.

Today, in a world frightened by the ugly harvest of its own materialism, it
may be possible to arrive at a juster estimate of Buddha’s views in regard to
the immortality of the soul. Since the scientific polemic against all
metaphysical conceptions and mystical or transcendental teachings has about worn
itself out, we should now be able to give a fair hearing to the proposition that
Buddha took very much the same

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

view of
immortality that is found in Plato, and that his caution in expounding this
teaching is duplicated in the words of Socrates, when he speaks to Glaucon, in
the Republic:

I quite admit the difficulty of believing that in every man there is an
eye of the soul which, when by other pursuits lost and dimmed, is by these
purified and re-illuminated; and is more precious far than ten thousand bodily
eyes, for by it alone is truth seen. Now there are two classes of persons: one
class of those will agree with you and take your words as a revelation; another
class to whom they will be utterly unmeaning, and who will naturally deem them
to be idle tales, for they see no sort of profit which is to be obtained from
them.
Again, like Buddha, Socrates says in the Phaedo:

I would ask you to be thinking of the truth and not of Socrates; agree
with me, if I seem to you to be speaking the truth; or if not, withstand me
might and main, that I may not deceive you as well as myself in my enthusiasm,
and like the bee, leave my sting in you before I die....

I do not mean to affirm that the description which I have given the soul and
her mansions is exactly
true—a man of sense ought hardly to say that. But I do say that inasmuch as the
soul is shown to be

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ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

immortal, he may venture to think, not improperly or unworthily, that something
of the kind is true. The venture is a glorious one, and he ought to comfort
himself with words like these, which is the reason why I lengthen out the tale.
Wherefore, I say, let a man be of good cheer about his soul.

It seems fair to say that men such as Buddha and Plato are first of all
teachers—that is, their interest is in effective communication, not in
acquiring followers and believers, and their discourses always reflect this
interest. When they qualify or express doubts, they may do this more out of
regard for how they will be understood than as a definitive account of their own
convictions. It is a mistake, therefore, to attempt a final estimate of the
views of either Buddha, Plato, Jesus, or any other teacher of religious
philosophy, by means of a literal analysis of the printed record of what they
taught.

In the case of Buddha, there is reason to think that, like Jesus, he taught
an inner, higher doctrine to his immediate disciples. What may be called
popular” Buddhism is generally conceded to have been preserved by the Southern
or Ceylonese School, and it is from the scriptures of Southern Buddhism that
West-

[129]

MODERN PERSPECTIVES

ern scholars have gained the
impression that Buddha denied the possibility of immortality. Rhys Davids, the
Orientalist whose interpretations are best known to the West, has written
(quoted by Edmond Holmes):
‘There is no passage of a soul or I in any sense from the one life to the other.
Their [the Buddhists’] whole view of the matter is independent of the
time-honored soul-theories held in common by all the followers of every other
creed.” Davids also concludes that “death, utter death,” is the sequel to
Nirvana.

Holmes is convinced that this is a mutilation, a complete misreading, of
Buddhist philosophy, and his chapter in The Creed of Buddha to correct
the mistake seems a well-reasoned discussion of the central implication of
Buddhist teachings. The Southern version, briefly, is that at death a man’s
tendencies and traits of character are resolved into psychic residues termed by
the Buddhists Skandhas, and that these are all that remain of the man
that has died. The Skandhas (carriers of Karma) are then reborn in some other
person or individual, but without any connecting link of continuing egoity.

Northern Buddhism, on the other hand, while exuberantly metaphysical in
form, is said to have pre-

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ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

serve the teaching given by Buddha
to his arhats, or initiated disciples, and here one finds unmistakably
taught the doctrine of a permanent identity which unites all the incarnations of
a single individual. This latter is the view adopted by Holmes:

The difference between these two conceptions of moral causation, and between
the two derivative conceptions of immortality, is as wide as it is deep. The
question which we have to ask ourselves with regard to the Buddhist conception
is a simple one: Is the identity between me and the inheritor of my Karma, or
again between me and the man whose Karma I inherit, as real as the identity
between the me of today and the me of 20 years hence (if I shall be
living then), or again between the me of today and the me of my childhood? If it
is not as real, the doctrine of reincarnation is pure nonsense from both points
of view,—from that of Eastern idealism and of Western science. But if it is
real, the doctrine is sound sense in the eyes of Eastern idealism; and though
Western science cannot countenance it, it is equally certain that it cannot
reject it, for the matter is one which necessarily eludes its grasp.

Holmes continues, showing that the doctrine of Karma, the key teaching of
Buddhism, becomes almost senseless when divorced from the idea of a reincar-

[131]

MODERN
PERSPECTIVES

nating
ego, and he confirms this argument by pointing to the fact that Hinduism is
unequivocal in teaching the progressive development of the soul through
successive embodiments or incarnations; and that Buddha by no means renounced
all of Hinduism, but only what seemed to him its abuses and excesses. In Holmes’
words:

The antecedent improbability of a great Teacher breaking away completely
from the highest and deepest thought of his nation and his age, is very great.
The great Teacher is always a reformer as well as an innovator; and to reform is
to go back to an ideal which had been forgotten, or otherwise obscured. . . when, having for argument’s sake assumed the
opposite of this, assumed that the teaching of Buddha was directly and
fundamentally subversive of the ideas which found utterance in the Upanishads,
we find that the whole of the system falls to pieces and the wisdom of it
becomes unthinkable nonsense, then what has hitherto been probability of a very
high degree seems to approach the level of certainty. At any rate, if we may not
yet say that the creed which Buddha held but did not openly profess, was the
spiritual idealism of ancient India, we may say that the counter-hypothesis—that
Buddha’s creed was the direct negation of that lofty

[132]

ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

faith—can easily be disproved. The efforts that are made to bring the teaching
of Buddha into line with the negative dogmatism of the “religion of science”
would be ludicrous if they were not, in a sense, pathetic, For, in truth, they
prove nothing except the depth of the abyss that separates Eastern from Western
thought.

It may be acknowledged, with Dr. Holmes, that the tendentious element in the
Western liking for Buddhism, on the ground that here is a religion which
supports the anti-metaphysical inclinations of the scientifically-minded, has
little real support in the teachings of Buddha, but this does not eliminate all
reason for an interest in Buddhism by the scientifically trained. Nor need it be
supposed that the present-day turning to Buddhism of reflective Westerners,
including pioneers in psychotherapy, reflects no more than the attractions of
agnosticism. Holmes has another passage which shows an authentic common ground
for Buddhism and the scientific spirit in the principle of evolution:

The scientific achievements of the West, so far as they have
any philosophical significance, fall under two main heads,—the discovery (if I
may use the word), on the physical plane, that the Kingdom

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

of
Nature is under the reign of law (a conception of Nature which Science
must have unconsciously brought with her to her work of investigation, and which
has wade that work possible); and the further discovery that all the laws of
Nature are subordinate to the master law of development or growth.
(We speak of the growth of an individual organism; of the development
of a type. As the soul is both individual and universal, either term may be
applied to it.) Both these discoveries were anticipated by Buddha; but they were
made by him—or by the thinkers who sowed what he reaped—not on the physical
plane, but on the spiritual, on the plane of man’s inner life. Buddha realized,
as no man before (or since) had ever done, that the soul is a living thing, and
that, as such, it comes under the all-pervading, all-controlling law of growth.
. . . He taught men that, if they would bring their lives
into harmony with certain fundamental laws of Nature, their souls would grow—as
well-tended crops grow—vigorously and healthily; and that the sense of
well-being which accompanies successful growth, and which, when consciously
realized, is true happiness, would be theirs. . . . Penetrated with the conviction that what a man does
reacts, naturally and necessarily, on what he is, and so affects for all time
the growth of the soul and its consequent well-being; penetrated with the
conviction that conduct moulds

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ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

character, and that character is
destiny;—Buddha called upon each man in turn to take his life into his own
hands, and himself to direct the process of his growth.

Insofar as science is of any use to human beings as souls, its ultimate
principle is here declared. It is this principle which informs the new
psychotherapy, and all thought, actually, which is concerned with man’s efforts
to better his life, in both individual and community.

Finally, what of Buddhism in India, the land of its origin, and the Indian
attitude toward this historic reformer of Indian religion? Dr. Radhakrishnan
concludes his chapter on Buddhism (in Indian Philosophy) with a section
on the “Success of Buddhism,” in which he remarks that the spread of Buddhism in
India was so rapid that in only two hundred years it was recognized as the state
religion. This noted scholar attributes the spread of Buddhism at a rate
unrivalled by any other world faith to the appeal of Buddha as a man, his
teaching of the Law, and the ideal of universal brotherhood. He writes:

It would have been a surprise if his magnanimity and moral elevation did not
appeal to the imagina-

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MODERN PERSPECTIVES

tion of
the people. The idea of human brotherhood undermined the growing rigors of
caste. . . . Buddha justified the practice of the good even to
those who did not believe in a personal God. No other independent ethics gives
us a more thrilling message of universal benevolence. At a time when bloody
sacrifices were not yet out of fashion, the teaching of mercy to all creation
had a tremendous effect. No voice like Buddha’s ever thundered into our ears the
majesty of the good. It is the flaming ideal of righteousness that helped
Buddhism to succeed as a religion. . . . Buddhism succeeded so well because it was a
religion of love, giving voice to all the inarticulate forces which were working
against the established order and the ceremonial religion, addressing itself to
the poor, the lowly and the disinherited.

Buddhism did not, however, survive in India until the present, although it
obtained secure roots among the thousands of millions of Asians living in
Ceylon, Burma, China, Tibet, and Japan. Eventually there was active persecution
of the Buddhists by the Brahmans and some of the Indian princes, and dissensions
and schisms among the Buddhists themselves were a weakening influence. First the
Buddhists were driven from the large cities. Then, with the Mogul invasion,

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ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

the
decline of Indian Buddhism was accelerated until, during the sixteenth century,
traces of Buddhism disappeared entirely from Kashmir, Bengal, and the Deccan.

Even so, there are today probably more Buddhists in the world than followers
of any other faith. Further. it is possible that a renewal of interest in
Buddhism may take place in India, as a result of Gandhi’s influence and from
other causes. After Gandhi was released from one of his several prison terms by
the British in 1924, he chose for his first public appearance the
Buddhist anniversary day. On this occasion he said

....I am more than most people endeavoring to popularize the truth for which
Gotama Buddha lived and died.
. . . I would like to tell the meeting what
I believe about Buddhism. To me it is a part of Hinduism. Buddha did not give
the world a new religion; he gave it a new interpretation. He taught Hinduism
not to take but to give life. True sacrifice was not of others but of self.
Hinduism resents any attack upon the Vedas. It regarded the new interpretation
as such an attack. Whilst, therefore, it accepted the central truth of Buddha’s
teaching, it fought against Buddhism regarded as a new and anti-Vedic cult.

[137]

MODERN
PERSPECTIVES

It
has become the fashion nowadays in some quarters to say that India’s downfall
dates from her acceptance of Buddha’s teachings. It is tantamount to saying that
love and pity, if sufficiently practiced, will degrade the world. In other
words, according to the critics, evil should triumph in the end. It is my
unalterable belief that India has fallen not because it accepted Gotama’s
teaching, but because it failed to live up to it. The priest has ever sacrificed
the prophet. Vedas to be divine must be a living word, ever growing, ever
expanding and ever responding to new forces. The priest clung to the letter, and
missed the spirit.

But we need not despair. The reformation that Buddha attempted has never had
a fair trial. Twenty-five hundred years are nothing in the life of the world. If
the evolution of form takes æons,
why should we expect miracles in the evolution of thought and conduct? And yet
the age of miracles is not gone. As with individuals, so with nations. I hold it
to be perfectly possible for masses to be suddenly converted and uplifted.
Suddenness is only seeming. No one can say how far the leaven has been working.
The most potent forces are unseen, even unfelt, for long. But they are working
none the less surely. Religion is to me a living faith in the supreme Unseen
Force. That Force has confounded mankind before, and it is bound to con-

[138]

ON BUDDHA’S THOUGHT

found
us again. Buddha taught us to defy appearances and trust in the final triumph of
Truth and Love. This was his matchless gift to Hinduism and to the world.

He taught us also how to do it, because he lived what he taught. The best
propaganda is not pamphleteering, but for each one of us to try to live the life
we would have the world live.

Thus Gandhi joins with Edmond Holmes in affirming that Buddha taught out of
the great philosophical reserves of the Upanishads, the spiritual religion of
ancient India, but with a new spirit—a spirit of brotherhood and equality, and
love of all life. It is this spirit which ever renews the interest in Gotama
Buddha and his mission to the world. It is a spirit which can never die, but
will always be reborn in those who feel, even if only a little, what Buddha felt
toward the world around him.